May 17, 2009
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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -
Illinois State's Michelle Brunk and Samantha Springer were crowned Missouri Valley Conference champions and broke Indiana State Marks Field records in the final day of competition at the 2009 Valley Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Terre Haute on Marks Field Sunday. Both the Redbird women's and men's teams finished fifth at the championship meet.
"We had some outstanding performance with Sam Springer finishing out her career at Illinois State as a discus conference champion," said head coach Elvis Forde. "It was a tremendous effort on her part and not only that, but having Tori (Ziegler) and Kami (Klopfenstein) make the finals of the discus really picked us up."
On the women's side, Southern Illinois won the team title with 181.5 point and were followed by Wichita State (171.5) in second. Indiana State (128) and Missouri State (116) finished third and fourth, respectively. Illinois State (104), Northern Iowa (71.5), Drake (35.5) and Bradley (10) rounded out the eight team championships meet.
On the men's side, UNI took top honors and captured its third-straight outdoor title with 207 points. SIU (179 points) edged out Indiana State (173 points) for second place. Wichita State took fourth with 125 and were followed by the Redbirds who captured 88 points. Drake rounded out the men's teams performances with 41 points.
Springer, a senior and already an all-conference performer in the shot put, won the discus with a career-best toss of 172-4. The Tremont, Ill., native improved to No. 2 all-time at Illinois State and broke the Marks Field record previously set by Julie Koebcke (172-2) of Indiana State in 1994. Springer's toss of 172-4 currently ranks 13th in the nation and eighth in the Mideast Region. She also competed in the hammer throw and finished sixth with a toss of 166-7.
Springer scored 21 points for the Redbird women and will be traveling to the Mideast Regional meet in three events; the hammer throw, shot put and discus.
Brunk captured her first MVC title in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.31. The Palatine, Ill., native broke the eight-year old Indiana State facility record at Marks Field, previously held by Noa Beitler from Southern Illinois (2:10.44). With the win Brunk will automatically advance to the regional meet.
"You have to give credit to Michelle Brunk," said Forde. "Last year she finished as the conference runner-up and she entered today's raced determined and it was written all over her face. Once she got to the 500-meter mark in the race she did not wait, she took off and it was refreshing to see her do that."
In the short sprints, Meaka Brents finished third and turned in a time of 12.03 in the finals of the 100-meter dash to earn her first individual outdoor all-conference honors. Freshman Alia McAfee and senior Brianna Officer took fifth and sixth in the 400-meter dash turning in times of 56.70 and 57.35, respectively.
Senior Megan Thompson turned in a season-best time of 14.11 in the 100-meter hurdles to finish third and earn all-conference recognition.
On the men's side, Alex Adams, Jason Robbs and Chris McIntyre all had personal-best tosses in the men's discus for the Redbird men. Adams' toss of 166-6 earned him all-conference accolades as he finished in third place, while Robbs' toss of 156-8 earned him the fourth position. McIntyre, who took second in the shot put Saturday, posted a mark of 147-2 in the discus for an 11th-place finish.
Nick Ragusa, a junior pole vaulter finished sixth in the vault clearing a career-best height of 16-2.75. Ragusa improved upon his ISU all-time best mark, which ranks No. 3 in the ISU record book.
On the track, Nick Geyer finished sixth in both the 800- and 1,500-meter runs. The sophomore ran both races with little rest in between and posted solid performance. Geyer posted a time of 1:54.74 in the 800 and 3:57.48 in the 1,500.
Senior Carl Azab set a career-best mark in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.37 to finish fourth. Kayode Adegoke took fifth in both the 100 and 200-meter dash finals. The freshman clocked in with a time of 19.85 in the 100 and 21.47 performance in the 200.
"Kayode who is only a freshman had a very good performance in the sprints," said Forde. "Nick Geyer made a huge impact pulling a tough double in the 1,500 meters and then came back in the 800 and gave a huge effort."
Josh Pope, a freshman hurdler took fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a career-best time of 14.87.
The following is a list of all the All-Missouri Valley Conference performances Illinois State earned at the 2009 Valley Outdoor Championships.
Women's All-Missouri Valley Conference
Amanda Albrecht, high jump
Meaka Brents, 100-meter dash
Michelle Brunk, 800-meter run (champion)
Leigh Petranoff, javelin (champion)
Morgan Schaefer, heptathlon
Samantha Springer, shot put; discus (champion)
Megan Thompson, 100-meter hurdles
Men's All-Missouri Valley Conference
Alex Adams, discus
Chris Kirtz, long jump
Chris McIntyre, shot put
The Redbirds will be back in action at the NCAA Mideast Regional Track and Field Championships held in Lousiville, Ky., May 29-30. ISU will send the following individuals to the Regional championships meet: Springer, Brunk, Ziegler, Leigh Petranoff and Kirsten Lang.
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