June 3, 2003
ATHLETES OF THE MONTH: Tiffany Britten and Prentice Stovall were recently selected as Purdue's May Athletes of the Month ... Britten shattered the school record in the shot put with her sixth-place launch of 15.34 meters (50 feet, 4 inches) at the Big Ten Championships ... the old record of 14.90 (48-0) had been held by Stacy Hartman since May of 1985 ... Britten, an NCAA regional qualifier in the shot put, set personal bests in the hammer (47.96; 157-4) and discus (43.87; 143-11) against the Indiana Hoosiers on May 3 ... Stovall led Purdue to a second-place finish at the 2003 Big Ten Championships with 148 points, which is the highest point total ever recorded by a Boilermaker team ... ran the final leg for the 4x100-meter relay that set a new Bierman Track and Field record with its first-place time of 39.75 seconds ... Stovall finished runner-up in the 110 hurdles and led a four-way Boilermaker sweep in the 100 ... established personal bests in the 100 (10.39) and the 110 hurdles (13.96) at the conference championships ... won the 110 hurdle title in back-to-back weeks against Indiana and at the Billy Hayes Invitational in Bloomington ... track and field has earned four Athlete of the Month Awards in 2003 ... Kenneth Baxter earned honors in February ... Shaun Guice collected his certificate in March.
NCAA MIDEAST REGIONAL RECAP (MEN): Purdue finished tied for fourth place with Ohio State at its first regional championships meet ... the Boilermakers and host Buckeyes both scored 43 points ... Arkansas won the Mideast Regional title with 73 points ... the Razorbacks were followed by Southeastern Conference allies Auburn (68) and LSU (57.5) ... Keith McBride made history as the first Boilermaker to qualify for the NCAA National Championships through the regional meet after placing fourth in the hammer throw ... Kenneth Baxter, Shaun Guice, Nedzad Mulabegovic and Pooh Williams also finished among the top five in their respective events, automatically qualifying them for the national championships in Sacramento, Calif. ... Baxter placed third in the 200-meter dash in 20.86 seconds ... Guice registered a second-place height of 2.13 meters (6 feet, 11 3/4 inches) in the high jump ... Mulabegovic broke his own school record in the shot put with a launch of 19.51 (64- 1/4) ... Williams won the regional pole vault title with a leap of 5.36 (17-7), tying a personal best ... Brian Smith placed 18th in the javelin with a launch of 58.15 (190-9) ... Jacques Reeves placed sixth in the 200 at 21.47 ... the 4x100 team of Baxter, Jamar Green, Reeves and Prentice Stovall finished third in the preliminaries with a time of 39.67 seconds, its second fastest mark of the season ... the team was later disqualified in the finals due to a false start ... Baxter clocked a personal best time of 10.44 in the 100 ... he was followed to the finish line by teammates Stovall (10.45) and Reeves (10.49) ... the trio of Boilermaker 100-meter specialists all improved on their initial regional rankings.
NCAA MIDEAST REGIONAL RECAP (WOMEN): Purdue tied for 27th place at the Mideast Regional Championships meet in Columbus, Ohio ... LSU dominated the meet with 95 points, 33 points ahead of runner-up Michigan ... all the Boilermakers' points were scored by pole vaulter Simona Kovacic ... the native of Etobicoke, Ontario recorded a personal record leap of 4.02 meters (13 feet, 2 1/4 inches), which tied her for third with Eastern Michigan's Kellie Kearn ... Kovacic will serve as the Boilermakers' only female representative at the NCAA Championships ... Krissy Liphardt finished 14th in the 100 hurdles, clocking in at 1:00.86 ... Tiffany Britten landed in the 17th spot after recording a distance of 14.52 (47-7 3/4) in the shot put ... Amber Ferner and Kara Lahey had respectable finishes in the Steeplechase ... Ferner came across 16th in 10:50.72 ... Lahey placed 16th with a time of 10:55.24 ... Laura Stier and Carrie Long tied for 18th in the high jump, both recording a top height of 1.66 (5-5 1/4) ... the 4x400 squad of Ragina Harvey, Ina Jackson, Kim Jordan and Krissy Liphardt placed 11th with a time of 3:46.00 ... Courtney Magnuson finished 21st in the hammer throw with an effort of 51.63 (169-5).
BUBBLE BOYS: Several individual Boilermakers and the 4x100-meter relay team were chosen as at-large selections for the NCAA National Championships ... the 4x100 squad of Kenneth Baxter, Jamar Green, Jacques Reeves and Prentice Stovall advance despite suffering a false start penalty at the Mideast Regional Championships ... the quartet, which set the school record at 39.50 seconds, won titles at the Big Ten Championships and at the Sea Ray Relays ... Scott Hecht will join teammate Nedzad Mulabegovic in the shot put ... Hecht won five shot-put titles this season, including ones at Penn and Sea Ray Relays ... Purdue will have three hammer throwers competing in Sacramento, with J. P. Smolenski and Igor Kirin joining Keith McBride.
THE 'WILL'iams TO WIN: Pole vaulter Pooh Williams made Purdue history as its first ever regional champion ... Williams' first-place leap of 5.36 meters (17 feet, 7 inches) tied a career best ... Williams registered his first 17-7 flight in January against Indiana State at Lambert Fieldhouse ... Williams' winning effort at regionals was four inches higher than that of runner-up John Russell of Akron ... the native of Portland, Ore., has hit the regional qualifying standard every time out this season and has only finished lower than five meters once.