Feb. 7, 2004
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Runners Kelly Van Abeele, Cailtin Baird and Laura Farley highlighted Purdue's second day of action Saturday at the Indiana Invitational. Van Abeele won the 800-meter run with a personal best 2:13.97, while Baird and Farley finished one-two in the mile run.
Baird and Farley also clocked personal records, with Baird coming across in 5:09.70 to Farley's 5:10.68. Farley held off Indiana's Lynn Fossier down the final stretch, beating her rival by .24 seconds.
Van Abeele also had to fight for her victory, beating Indiana's Ashley Groth to the finish line by one second.
T'Nita Waters and Ragina Harvey also competed in Saturday's finals after surviving yesterday's prelim and semifinal rounds. Waters placed sixth in the 60-meter dash finals with a 7.69, and Harvey posted a ninth-place showing in the finals of the 400-meter run (58.18).
In the 5,000-meter run redshirt sophomore Lindsay Zinn recorded a time of 17:42.73 to place sixth in the 32-woman field. Her mark was the team's fastest of the season.
The men's team also had solid showings in the distance events with Jon Hoggatt placing ninth in the 800 (1:55.50) and David Rae placing fourth in the 5,000 (15:03.16). Both athletes' times were season bests.
Kern Woods and Brian Hoying were Purdue's lone competitors in the field events. Woods finished with a height of 21 feet-10 inches (6.65 meters) in the long jump, and Hoying leaped 6-4 1/4 (1.94) in the high jump.
"These are good meets for us to have this weekend," said head coach Lissa Olson, who accompanied one half of the team to Indiana. "Even though the meets are non-scoring they still provide good competition for all our athletes, especially the ones in Nebraska. This weekend's meets allowed everyone to focus on their individual performances, and to get the kinks out before we go to the New York Armory next week, which is a huge team-scoring meet."
In addition to competing in Bloomington, the Purdue coaching staff also sent athletes to compete at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. Those Boilermakers, including All-Americans Kenneth Baxter and Keith McBride wrap up competition late Saturday night.
The University of Nebraska is providing live results of its meet through its athletics web site at www.huskers.com.