Feb. 5, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Boilermaker track and field teams will take to the road for the first time this year, as they travel to Bloomington for the Indiana Invitational at the Harry C. Gladstein Fieldhouse on Feb. 7 and 8. The meet is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday. More than 25 teams from all over the nation are scheduled to compete.
As the Boilermakers prepare for the Armory Collegiate Invitational in New York next week, not all athletes will travel to Bloomington.
"This meet and our training this week have two distinct purposes," said Purdue head track and field coach Lissa Olson. "The first is that this meet at IU is a great opportunity for a lot of our women to go down to the facility and get some practice in the facility that is going to host the Big Ten Championships this year. The second is that we have used this past week to really train hard for those athletes who will not travel to IU. They will rest this weekend, and then we'll continue to train for the highly competitive New York meet."
Traveling to Indiana will be most of the women's track and field team, along with the men's throwers, several distance runners and senior Hence "Pooh" Williams.
In their last outing, the Boilermakers combined the men's and women's scores to compete against Indiana State in the annual Edmonds Cup. For the eighth-straight year, the Old Gold and Black came away with the title in their home facility, Lambert Fieldhouse.
Competing well last weekend on the women's side was senior Amy Spellmeyer, who won the pole vault. It was her first win since returning from injury, and the depth of the pole vaulting team tallied six season-best jumps. Spellmeyer's jump just missed the NCAA provisional cut mark.
For the heptathletes, Shanna Carter tallied three personal bests, Jan Eichenauer a PR in the high jump and Desiree Jones tallied a record in the 60-meter hurdles.
In the women's mile race, Christan Bahler finished first with Laura Farley close behind in second. Bahler tallied a substantial PR, while Farley finished faster than her time last week for a season-best. Kaleen Cappel finished fourth with a personal best, as well.
On the men's side, Williams tallied a pole vault jump of 5.36m (17' 7") for a four-inch personal record and an NCAA provisional cut mark. He was also named the Big Ten Male Athlete of the Week for his accomplishments.
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