April 10, 2004
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - All-American Scott Hecht finished third in the shot put at Tennessee's Sea Ray Relays, recording a career-best mark of 61 feet, 2 3/4 inches (18.66 meters). His effort on Saturday, the second best throw in Purdue history, was a personal record by almost two feet.
Hecht's previous best of 59-11 3/4 was recorded at the 2002 Sea Ray Relays. Only teammate Nedzad Mulabegovic has recorded better marks in the shot put, whose school record stands at 66-1 1/2.
Elsewhere in the field, throwing colleague Tiffany Britten posted a season best throw of 47-11 3/4 in the shot put and Shaun Guice reached a height of 7- 1/2 in the high jump.
On the track, Kenneth Baxter earned his first NCAA regional qualifying mark of the season, clocking a sixth-place time of 21.17 in the 200-meter dash. In this race, Justin Gatlin of Team Nike broke the nine-year-old track record with his time of 20.21; the old Tom Black Track record of 20.24 was established in June of 1995 by UCLA's Ato Boldon.
Baxter is the seventh Boilermaker male athlete to qualify for the NCAA Mideast Regionals, joining Guice, Hecht, Mulabegovic, Keith McBride, Igor Kirin and John Paul Smolenski.
Complete results of the Sea Ray Relays can be accessed off the front page of Tennessee's athletics web site, utsports.com.
Results of the Miami University Invitational, where some Boilermaker track and field athletes were also competing this weekend, will be available later tonight.