May 13, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
After the first day of competition at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Track and Field Outdoor Championships hosted by Northern Iowa, Illinois State's Brittney Hourd currently sits in third place with 2,989 points after four events of the heptathlon. She recorded personal bests in the hurdles, shot put and the 200-meter dash.
In the four events of the heptathlon that were contested, Hourd tied for third in the high jump with 4-11.50 while also placing third in the 100-meter hurdles (14.4). Hourd took second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.98 as well as in the shot put (35-3). The heptathlon will continue tomorrow as the long jump, javelin and 800-meters will conclude the event.
Head coach Elvis Forde was very pleased with the way Hourd performed on the first day of competition and is excited to see what will come of tomorrow when the event is finished.
"Brittney performed very well today," Forde said. "She had personal bests in three of her four events and I look forward to tomorrow and her competing in the finals."
Senior, Brian Krantz competed in the hammer throw placing third with a distance of 196-01. He went into the competition with the best mark in the league at 200-7, but was unable to hold off Northern Iowa's Derrick Benner and Indiana State thrower Jason Carruthers.
Although Forde was pleased with the performance by Hourd, he thought the rest of the Redbird squad performed fairly well.
"We didn't really have any great performances in the throws today, but we performed alright," said Forde. "We were looking to score more points in the throws competitions, but it seemed like the other league schools were one step ahead of us. The kids from UNI and other schools were ready for the challenge and stepped up."
Day two of competition will continue Saturday morning with field events beginning at 2 p.m. and running events getting underway at 3:30 p.m.
"Hopefully the weather will stay nice for Friday's competition and we should be ready to compete and produce some good performances," added Forde.
