April 26, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa -
Going into the final day of heptathlon competition in 10th place, Illinois State track and field team member Frannie Epps improved four spots and finished in sixth place at the 98th Annual Drake Relays Thursday. Epps finished the day with 4,561 points, only seven points away from the fifth spot, at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.
Epps was able to progress in the standings thanks mostly to her performance in Thursday's second event, the javelin. Epps threw a distance of 133-02 feet, winning the event by two feet and setting a season-best while nearly establishing a new personal-best. Epps jumped a distance of 16-01.50 feet in the long jump, while clocking in at 2:36.34 in the final event, the 800-meter run.
Southern Mississippi's Ashley Reyer won the heptathlon, scoring a total of 5,217 points.
Assistant coach Tim Thompson was pleased with the way Epps was able to finish in the top-six, accomplishing the goal that he had in mind before the beginning of Thursday's events.
"Heading into today's competition, we obviously wanted to move up in the standings," said Thompson. "Frannie was able to do that, which was great. She was able to maintain her ground in the first event, the long jump, which was what we wanted to do. She was able to really jump up the leaderboard with her performance in the javelin, which was a season-best. Going into the final-event (800-meter run), we just wanted to maintain a top-six finish. Frannie's energy level was low at that point, but she was able to get through it the best that she could."
In the Thursday evening distance carnival, sophomore Kathleen Thompson posted the women's highest finish, placing sixth in the 10,000-meter run (invitational race). Thompson clocked in at 36:51.22, as she was running in her first 10,000-meter race in her career. Teammate freshman Kim Ebbesen finished in eighth, finishing in a season-best time of 37:04.61. Grinnell College's Sarah Spencer won the race, running a time of 36:05.13.
On the men's side, freshman Jordan Anderson paced the `Birds by clocking in at 30:32.60, a new personal-best, and finishing in third place in the 10,000-meter run (invitational race). Anderson, a native of Mason City, Iowa, spent most of the race in second in his first outdoor race back in his home state. Anderson battled with Drake's Skyler Nesheim in the final stretch before falling back into his final position, with only two seconds separating the two runners. Freshman Scott Krapf also competed in the race, finishing in 11th and in 30:59.46. Krapf's time was also a personal-best.
Assistant coach Jeff Bovee, who also made the trip, felt the distance runners were able to perform at a high level despite unfavorable conditions for the second straight day.
"The distance group ran very well today," said Bovee. "It didn't go perfectly, but for their first experience at the Drake Relays, I couldn't be happier. Kathleen ran very well, especially since it was her first time running in the event. Kim showed a huge improvement in her time as well. Jordan had a great race back in his home state. He spent most of the race in second, and battled very hard until the end. Scott also set a new personal-record, even though he was struggling with some fatigue towards the end of the race."
Members of the men's and women's relay teams will be in competition Friday, beginning at 9 a.m. For complete results from Thursday's action, please visit www.drakerelays.com
