May 28, 2004
BATON ROUGE, La. - High jumper Shaun Guice and throwers Keith McBride and Scott Hecht will all be going to the NCAA Championships in two weeks, after the trio placed among the top five Friday at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.
Guice, a six-time All-American in the high jump, gave himself an opportunity to capture a seventh citation following his third-place leap of 7 feet, 1 inch (2.16 meters). Not only did Guice clinch a spot at the national championships, but his bronze-medal showing also gave the Boilermaker men six points on the team scoreboard.
Through four scored events, Purdue leads the field with 23 points. Kentucky is in second with 15, while Big Ten rivals Ohio State (12) and Wisconsin (11) sit in third and fourth place.
The Boilermaker men earned 11 points in the hammer throw as McBride and John Paul Smolenski captured the second and sixth positions. McBride's runner-up effort landed at the 210-7 (64.20) mark, while Smolenski's throw traveled 202-1 (61.61). For placing among the top five, McBride automatically qualified for a trip to Austin, Texas; Smolenski will wait to see if he receives an at-large bid.
Senior Hecht earned his second straight trip to nationals after placing third in the shot put with a toss of 62-4 (19.00). Hecht's effort gave the Boilermakers six points.
Several Boilermakers will be in action Saturday at regionals, including steeplechasers Amber Ferner, Kara Lahey, Mike Ciccarelli and David Rae. The distance running quartet will begin their races at 7 p.m.
Competing in the field will be Tiffany Colvin and Carrie Long in the high jump; Angela Anoliefoh and Lindsay Blaine in the javelin; Tiffany Britten in the shot put; Andy Bodey in the pole vault and Hecht in the discus.
Complete results and team scores for the regional championships can be found off the front page of LSUsports.net.