SIU women win, men take second at MVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Southern Illinois women's track and field team won the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championship, while the men finished second at Marks Field Sunday.

The women won their first outdoor championship since 1996 and Saluki head coach Connie Price-Smith won her third MVC Women's Coach of the Year honor, including her second award this year.

The teams combined for nine conference titles and 30 all-conference honors.

The Saluki women scored 181.50 points for the win, followed by pre-championship favorite, Wichita State with 171.50. Indiana State came in third with 128 points and Missouri State fourth at 116. Illinois State (104), Northern Iowa (71.50), Drake (35.50) and Bradley (10) rounded out the field.

On the men's side, pre-championship favorite Northern Iowa took the title with 207 points. Southern Illinois came in second with 179 points and Indiana State third with 173. Wichita State (125), Illinois State (88) and Drake (41) finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

The Saluki women's throwers swept the top three spots in the hammer throw, Gwen Berry winning with a regional-qualifying mark of 193-11 (59.11m). Sasha Leeth (178-01, 54.28m) and Jeneva McCall (167-08, 51.11m) finished second and third. Olga Ciura came in fifth with a mark of 167-08 (51.11m), Jordan Harris eighth at 156-11 (47.84m).

In the 100-meter hurdles the women took three of the top four positions, Meredith Hayes winning the event, improving her regional mark to 13.50. Terri Counts (14.11) finished second and Miracle Thompson (14.27), fourth.

Alisa Baron finished third in the 400-meter dash in 56.47 and Bianca Stuart finished fifth in the 100-meter dash in 12.12. Kim Beardwood came in third in the 800-meter run in 2:13.02.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Kendra Deck finished second in 1:00.14, improving her regional-qualifying mark with her career-best time in the event. Nefeteri Williams finished third in 1:01.80 and Tredene Davis third in 1:02.34.

Megan Hoelscher (17:32.98) and Emily Toennies (17:35.19) came in fifth and sixth respectively in the 5,000-meter run.

Jeneva McCall finished second in the discus throw with a regional toss of 169-03 (51.60m).

Malaikah Love finished second in the triple jump with a regional-qualifying leap of 41-03 (12.57m). Bianca Stuart finished fourth with a jump of 40-04 (12.29m), while Gwen Berry finished fifth at 38-09.50 (11.82m). Judeka Adams came in eighth with a mark of 38-00.25 (11.59m).

Stuart, Hayes, Thompson and Love ran the 4x100-meter relay in 46.37 for third place.

In the 4x400-meter relay, Deck, Williams, Davis and Baron finished third in 3:47.81.

On the men's side, Jeff Schirmer won his second-straight 5,000-meter run in 14:22.56 setting a new Marks Field record. Mohamed Mohamed finished second in 14:30.64 and Jason Ordway finished seventh in 14:50.30.

In the men's throws, Jake Deiters won the event with a regional toss of 180-07 (55.05m). Tom Smith finished fifth throwing 156-07 (47.73m), Ryan Shumaker seventh at 154-02 (47.00m).

Cody Doerflein finished fifth in the pole vault clearing 16-06.75 (5.05m).

In the triple jump, Geoffrey Daniel (48-09.50, 14.87m) and Maxim Bakana (48-04.50, 14.74m) finished third and fifth.

In the running events, Stephen Arvanis finished third in the 800 in 1:52.23. Sammy Biggs finished fourth in the 400 in 48.41 and Willie Knox finished fifth in the 400 hurdles in 53.65.

Stevie Warren finished second in the 200 in 21.22 and third in the 100 in 10.74. Justin Kozak came in eighth in the 200 in 22.01 and sixth in the 100 in 10.91.

In the 4x100-meter relay, Warren, Biggs, Kenny Blanks and Kozak finished fourth in 41.77. Kozak, Warren and Biggs then united with Arvanis to finish second in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:11.54.

Saturday Recap

The Salukis won four events and advanced 16 athletes to Sunday's sprint finals.

Wichita State leads the way on the women's side with 81.50 points. Southern Illinois sits second with 49.50 points, followed by Illinois State with 46. UNI (41.50), Missouri State (40), Indiana State (40), Drake (9.50) and Bradley (4) round out the field.

On the men's side Southern Illinois (81) and Indiana State (81) share the lead, while Wichita State sits third with 59 points. UNI (54), Illinois State (32) and Drake (5) sit fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Bianca Stuart won her third-straight long jump title with a leap of 20-05.75 (6.24m). Malaikah Love finished third earning all-conference honors with a 19-08.75 (6.01m) jump.

Joe Paradiso won the men's hammer throw with a toss of 192-00 (58.52m). Tom Smith (184-08, 56.28m), Joe Mueller (181-03, 55.26m) and J.C. Lambert (180-01, 54.88m) finished third, sixth and eighth respectively.

In the shot put, Jeneva McCall threw 49-11.25 (15.22m) for the win. Gwen Berry finished sixth with a toss of 46-03.25 (14.10m) and Sasha Leeth finished seventh at 44-09 (13.64m).

Jason Ordway won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a new regional-qualifying mark of 9:03.92. Teammate Brad Wrage finished seventh in 9:31.14. In the women's steeplechase, Megan Hoelscher finished sixth in 10:51.01. Miracle Thompson scored in the pole vault finished fourth clearing 11-09.75 (3.60m).

Joe Paradiso finished third in the men's shot put for all-conference honors with a toss of 54-01.25 (16.49m). Ryan Shumaker(52-00.50, 15.86m) and J.C. Lambert (51-11.75, 15.84m) finished fifth and sixth.

Friday Recap

With two events scored (10,000-meter run and javelin), meet favorite Wichita State leads on the women's side with 19 points, followed closely by UNI (17) and Illinois State (15). Southern Illinois (11) and Missouri State (10) round out the top five, while Bradley (4), Drake (1) and Indiana State (1) close out the team scores.

On the men's side, Southern Illinois leads the way after two events, tallying 36 points, as Wichita State sits in second with 26. Host Indiana State is third (15), while meet favorite UNI earned just one point on the first day of competition.

Cross country All-American Jeff Schirmer became the second athlete in conference history to win three-straight 10,000-meter run titles, winning in a time of 30:59.18. Teammate Mohamed Mohamed finished second in 31:03.31. Fellow distance runners Kyle Kirchner (31:11.85), Neal Anderson (31:25.48) and Mark Bowman (32:25.09) finished fourth, sixth and eighth respectively in the event, all scoring points.

In the men's javelin, Tom Smith finished fourth with a toss of 186-11 (56.97m), while Trevor Poore came in fifth with a final mark of 178-04 (54.37m).

On the women's side, Jessica Vermeulen finished fourth in the javelin, throwing 134-11 (41.12m).

In the women's 10,000, Emily Toennies finished fifth and Ryan Eichelberger, seventh. Toennies finished in 37:47.42, Eichelberger in 38:31.21.

All ten Southern Illinois athletes that competed Friday scored points for the Salukis.