MSSU competes at 2008 MIAA Outdoor Championship

The Missouri Southern women's track and field team completed the MIAA Triple Crown today as they continued their dominance in winning the 2008 MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Northwest Missouri State University. It is the first time an MIAA team has won the Triple Crown since the 2006 Central Missouri women's team won all three titles.

The Lions entered day two with a 47 point lead over second place Central Missouri and defeated the Jennies by 40.5 points by the end of the day, scoring 193 points in the victory. The Southern men finished with 90 points, placing fifth in the team competition.

Junior Kara Eckard set a new MIAA record, picked up an automatic qualifying time, and recorded the 4th fastest time in Division II this season when she won the 3,000m steeplechase today with a time of 10:49.13. The time breaks her school record she set at Arkansas, and was 14 seconds faster than her nearest competitor. Kari Fritchie finished in 8th place.

Sophomore Jill Weeks earned an automatic qualifying mark in the Javelin when she won the event with a heave of 151 feet, four inches. The distance also breaks the Missouri Southern record that was set in 1979 by Barb Lawson in the AIAW Championships. It is the third longest distance in Division II this season.

Jessica Selby-Tallman remained undefeated in the shot put at the MIAA Championships, winning the event with a distance of 49 feet, 11 and a quarter inches. Selby-Tallman is a four-time, undefeated MIAA Champ in the indoor and outdoor shot put. Courtney Vie was third, while Jessica Self and Erin Steffens were fourth and sixth place, earning All-MAA honors.

Channell Lloyd picked up All-MIAA honors in two events today, finishing second in the 100m hurdles and sixth in the 400m hurdles while placing seventh in the triple jump. Kimi Shank and Victoria Kline were 2nd and 4th in the 5k, while Shank and Courtney Waltbillig were 4th and 5th in the 1,500m. Stacy Borgard finished eighth in the 400m, while Alison Walker, Shannan Borgard and Olga Bulgarova were 2nd, 6th and 8th in the 800m.

Both Borgard's, Walker and Kelly McKay helped the Lions pick up four points in the 4x400m relay, finishing fifth, while McKay, Stacy Borgard, Camile Brown and Danielle Oliver finished fifth in the 4x100m relay.

In men's action, the Lions picked up 26 points in the pole vault as Southern had five of the top seven heights. Russell Ellis won the title for the second straight year, vaulting to a height of 16 feet, three and a quarter inches. Jacob Williams and Seager Wilson were 3rd and 4th, while Corey Shumate and Phillip Horn were 6th and 7th.

Corey Reynolds and Chris Brown were 4th and 5th in the high jump, while TJ Britton finished 8th and 7th, respectively in the 400m and 800m. Brennan Benkert, Jarkko Jarvenpaa, Aki Nummela and Ryan Arthur went 5th - 8th in the 5k, while Nummela placed second in the 3k steeplechase. Kevin Wright was seventh in the 400m hurdles, while Horn placed 5th in the 110m hurdles. Southern's 4x400m relay team of Andrew Wright, Derek Wright, Kevin Wright and TJ Britton placed 8th.

In all, the Southern women had 16 athletes earn All-MIAA honors with seven multiple winners and the men had 10 All-MIAA athletes with Horn earning multiple honors in the decathlon and 100m hurdles.

Both teams have the option of traveling to the Emporia State Last Chance Meet on May 10, with the NCAA Division II Championships taking place on May 22-24 at Cal Poly Pomona.