May 15, 2009
Results
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -
Illinois State's Leigh Petranoff claimed her first conference title and set a new school mark in the javelin at the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships to highlight the Redbirds performance from Marks Field in Terre Haute, Ind., Friday evening.
"Going into the conference meet Leigh was at the top of the javelin standings so we expected her to win the event, but to do it in such a convincing fashion and putting such a large mark out there for all the other competitors to follow really put the pressure on them and they fell apart," said head coach Elvis Forde. "When you look at the series of her throws, it was just a dominating performance on her part and it gave us our first conference champion of the weekend. We just have to hope that she has set the tone for rest of the weekend."
Petranoff, a freshman from Cranston, R.I., won the event with a career-best 150 feet, 11 inches, surpassing the second-place finisher Monica Adcock from Wichita State, by 12 feet. The distance broke the ISU record set by Sylivia Gould (150-7) in 1987 by four inches. Petranoff's throw gave her the eighth-best throw in the Mideast Region and places her 46th nationally.
Morgan Schaefer turned in career-bests in the 100-meter hurdles (15.47) and 200-meter dash (26.02) to finish seventh and fifth, respectively, and ended the first day of competition in the heptathlon in fourth-place with a tally of 2,919 points. The junior from Rolling Meadows, Ill., tied for second in the high jump clearing a height of 5-5.25. Schaefer also took sixth in the shot put launching a distance of 33-2.
"Morgan really set some good PRs (personal records) today but she is still sitting in fourth place," said Forde. "I think that she is in a good position to be a medalist in the heptathlon once the day is over tomorrow. She is right on par to having a personal-best score, but tomorrow will be a very decisive day and she will need to score well in the long jump, 800-meters and javelin."
Sophomore Olivia Myers, a native of Normal, Ill., finished fourth in the women's 10,000-meter run with a time of 37:26.34.
"Olivia had a very good run on a very humid afternoon in the 10,000-meters," said Forde. This is championship time and to see Olivia finish fourth under the circumstances was very impressive. We had a good day and a good start on the women's side and hopefully we will have several qualifiers in the championship races."
Competition continues at the Valley Championships, hosted by Indiana State tomorrow at 8 a.m. CST, with the men's hammer throw. The runners will toe the line at 4:30 p.m. CST with the running of women's 100-meter hurdles.
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