After two days of competition, both the men and womens teams of Illinois State track and field placed fifth in the 2003 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted by the Redbirds in Horton Field House. Southwest Missouri State was the league winner on the womens side with 113 points while Northern Iowa took home top honors on the mens side with 116 points. ISU scored 59 points by the both the males and the females.
For their teams championship efforts, Ron Boyce, head coach at SMS, was named womens coach of the year by the Valley while Chris Bucknam of Northern Iowa was named mens coach of the year. Noa Beitler of Southern Illinois and Blake Bolden of SMS were named the most valuable athletes of the meet. Tracey Bearden of Drake was named the most outstanding female track athlete at the indoor championships while Bolden also received the honor on the mens side. Most outstanding field athlete of the meet was Beth Hilton of Indiana State and Josh Mastison of the Sycamore male squad won the award for the men.
For the Redbird women, Jen Klostermann, who held the fastest time in the 800 meters in the conference going into the weekend, finished second in that event with a time of 2:11.67 and placed fourth in the mile (4:56.99). Andrea Mosher was another Redbird notable as the freshman placed third in the 400 meters (56.63). Cherise Devers was fourth in the 200 meters with a time of 25.20 while Lauren Maul was sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.87).
On the mens side, Lashawn Bullock placed sixth in the 60-meter dash while on the distance side, Jeremy Doherty was fourth in the mile (4:17.34). Both Miklos Konkoly and Dan Tripp paraded to a 3-4 finish in the 800 meters while Walker Eye was eighth in the 3000 meters (8:34.65). John Shaffer finished tenth in the 5000 meters for ISU.
In field events, Chivas Hemphill placed fourth in the mens triple jump while Rhett Hillard was fourth in the shot put followed by Mark Jackson in sixth. Lauren Maul for the womens team was third in the triple jump today after taking the championship yesterday in the long jump.
Latisha Johnson, who holds the school record in the shot put, placed third in the shot put, while Ashley Minner was sixth.
To wrap-up the event, Illinois State finished third ont he womens side in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:47.93, while the men placed fifth in the same relay with a time of 3:31.20.
We felt the kids performed very well, head coach Elvis Forde said. We missed a couple of opportunities to take advantage but when I look at people like Andrea Mosher in the 400 and Cherise Devers in the 200, both freshman, and then Lauren Maul who has a few years here with us, plus the relays, we had some strong points.
As tough as it may seem, it was a gutty performance by Jen Klostermann who sacrificed her chance at being a champion in the 800 meters to be a part of the relay and help win points for our team, Forde added. It is things like that that makes me proud of the teams today. We struggled in some areas but health is what he need and some people were not healthy.
You cant take anything away from SMS. They are an outstanding team and worked hard here this weekend. It is just a matter of our kids realizing that in order to be a championship team, hard work is necessary for success.
On the mens side, we are not as deep in the men as we would like to be but a challenge with me taking the job here is trying to rebuild the program. So we have some work there but hopefully in the summer we can get them all to full strength. Hopefully we can get the kids to believe that they are champions and we hope to take away from this championship what it takes to be champions. I think it is now a focus on the outdoor season and what we can do to improve for that season as well.
The meet concluded the indoor season for Illinois State. The Redbirds open their outdoor season March 21-22 at the Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
