March 28, 2008
Results
CARBONDALE, Ill. -
Junior Samantha Springer and Senior Anton Walczak both achieved personal-bests and regional qualifying marks in the hammer throw to highlight the Illinois State track and field team performances in the first day of competition at the Southern Illinois/Gill Athletics Classic held at Lew Hartzog Stadium in Carbondale, Ill. The ISU men's and women's track and field teams will head into day two of competition in second place with 21 and 28 points, respectively.
Illinois State assistant track and field coach/throws Jeff Chakouian was impressed with the energy and effort his student-athletes demonstrated.
"I could not be more pleased with all the performances today," said Chakouian. "To bring five throwers here and have all of them walk out with PR's (personal-records) says a lot. I think that this was a big step in the right direction and we just need to keep building on our performances so we can be ready for conference and regional's at the end of the year."
Springer's hammer throw of 179 feet, six inches earned her a second-place finish and also gave her the second-best throw in ISU history, while teammate Sonja Zoric (freshman) threw a personal-best of 150-04 for fourth place.
"For Sam (Springer) to come out and regionally qualify in the first meet of the season was huge," said Chakouian. "Her goal this weekend is to throw regional qualifying marks in all three of her events (hammer throw, discus and shot put). As the season goes on her distances are just going to increase and this puts us in a great position as we continually prepare for conference."
Walczak launched a distance of 192-06 in the hammer throw to earn a second-place finish. Also throwing personal-bests in the hammer throw was senior Bryan Chancellor who threw 173-11 (fourth place), a distance that surpasses his previous best performance by over a foot, while freshman Danny Lindsey threw the hammer 126-11 (11th place).
Not to be overshadowed by the performance of the throwers freshman Lita Wynne took home the title in the long jump with a personal-best distance of 17-09 feet. Teammate sophomore Kaila Guske also achieved a personal-best jump of 17-00 and placed fourth, while sophomore Morgan Schaefer placed sixth (16-07.25).
Assistant track and field coach/jumps Tim Thompson pleasantly surprised with Wynne's performance.
"Every jump she took kept getting higher and higher," said Thompson. "Before competing today we talked and her number one goal was to get on the board. Her mental approach to this meet is the best that it has ever been, so when she hit the board on her first jump she went into every other jump more confident."
In the men's long jump freshman Chris Kirtz took second, launching a personal-best distance of 23-02.50.
The first day of competition featured a limited field of events as only the men's and women's weight throw and long jump took place. Day two is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. with the field events; running events will get underway at 11 a.m.
