Feb. 8, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
At the Hoosier Relays last weekend in Bloomington, Ind., Jeremy Doherty's performance in the invitational mile earned him the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference male track athlete of the week.
Doherty, invited to compete in the invitational mile among several elite runners, placed second in the event with a personal-best time of 4:07.17. He shaved nearly seven seconds off his previous best-time, while currently holding the fastest time in the Valley.
Based on Doherty's performance, it was no surprise to head coach Elvis Forde that he was chosen as the male track athlete of the week.
"Jeremy being picked as athlete of the week is no surprise," said Forde. "I think out of all the conference schools he had the best effort over the course of the weekend. He continues to run very well and I'm more than happy for him because of his situation the last two years in regards to going from a top athlete in the conference his freshman year and not be healthy these last two years. But he seems to have that little spurt back in him and the swagger he had his freshman year so hopefully that will continue all the way through this weekend at Iowa State and through the conference meet as well."
Competing in Ames, Iowa this weekend in the Iowa State Classic, Doherty will have a chance to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships, as his time in the mile at the Hoosier Relays was just short by less than two seconds.
The two-day meet will begin Friday, February 10 at 2 p.m. and continue through Saturday with field events getting underway at 11:30 a.m. and running events beginning at noon.
Performances this weekend will be a good indication of how well the Redbird squad stacks up.
"I'm going to expect them to go out this weekend and really try to see where they are," said Forde. "A majority of the Valley schools will be competing at Iowa State, so I think it'll be a good time to shine against them. I would hope that we go there and really have a good meet and overall performance."
Expecting Kimberli Smudde to be one of the top competitors in the 800-meters, Forde hopes that she will have a good weekend after competing in the 600-meters in the Hoosier Relays. Smudde has consistently run 2:16 this season in the 800-meters, but Forde hopes her time will come down at Iowa State.
Andrea Mosher will prepare for the Valley championships this weekend competing in the 400-meters. The last time Mosher was entered in the 400-meter run was at the Illinois Invite where she placed second in 57.86. At the Hoosier Relays, Mosher moved up to the half mile, winning the event in 2:12.25.
In the first meet of the season at Horton Field House, Mark Jackson provisionally qualified for the NCAA's in the weight throw with a toss of 63-09.00. However, last weekend he furthered his season-best mark (64-05.75) in the weight throw with a third-place finish in the event. Forde believes that Jackson will be one of the highlights in the throwing events this weekend.
"I think we're performing at a really high level right now and I'm going to expect that it continues this weekend," said Forde. "We'll take next week off to really fine tune ourselves and look forward to the conference championships."
