Feb. 27, 2005
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Sophomore Rickey Pinkney won the 60-meter hurdles Sunday at the Big Ten indoor championships, becoming the first Boilermaker since Rod Woodson in 1987 to win a conference indoor hurdle title.
Pinkney, who took first in yesterday's prelims and semis, held off Indiana's Stephanos Ioannou at the finish line, 7.89 to 7.90. Jeff Porter of Michigan was a close third at 7.91. Pinkney's times Saturday were 7.93 in prelims and 7.82 in the semis, tying his own varsity record.
A transfer from Florida A&M, Pinkney is Purdue's second conference champion of the weekend, joining senior Nedzad Mulabegovic, who won the shot put title yesterday with a push of 19.63 meters (64 feet-05 inches).
Purdue was winless at last year's conference indoor meet, but scored three individual titles in 2003 with Kenneth Baxter (200), Prentice Stovall (60) and Pooh Williams all receiving gold medals.
In the high jump, Purdue collected fourth-place points from Derek Watkins, who recorded a lifetime indoor best height of 2.12 (6-11.50). His mark ranks fourth on the Boilermakers' all-time top indoor performance list. Minnesota's Bryant Howe won the high jump championship with an NCAA provisional leap of 2.17 (7-1.5).
Also scoring in the field was senior J.P. Smolenski. The native New Yorker posted a season and lifetime best distance of 19.71 (64-8), passing Chris Spurrier's mark of 18.63 (61-1.5) for fifth on Purdue's all-time top performance list. Smolenski's throw also served as an NCAA provisional mark.
On the track, the Boilermakers received six points from the football-playing tandem of Zach Logan and Ray Williams in the 400-meter dash. Logan was fourth with a personal record of 47.75 and Williams was eighth with 48.60. Abe Jones of Illinois was the winner, completing the course in 47.42.
The 4x400-meter relay team completed the afternoon winning its heat with a time of 3:15.81, but placed seventh overall. Illinois won the meet-closing race with an NCAA provisional cut of 3:11.95.
Despite a handful of solid performances, the Boilermakers dropped two places to seventh with 47 points. Purdue was fifth at last season's meet in Ann Arbor, Mich., with 59 points.
Wisconsin won the championship with 144.5 points, giving the Badgers their fifth straight indoor conference title, and their eighth in 10 years. Indiana was second with 105.5 points, Illinois came in third with 96 points, and Michigan was fourth with 88 points. Minnesota placed fifth (80) and Ohio State was sixth (49).
Finishing behind the Boilermakers were Michigan State (37), Penn State (32) and Iowa (22).
Conference records continued to fall as Wisconsin's Matt Tegenkamp finished the 5K in 13:56.02 and Indiana's Aarick Wilson posted a distance of 16.83 (55-2 3/4) in the triple jump. Tegenkamp's mark broke his own championship record of 13:57.68 from last season's meet, and took down a 21-year-old Lambert Fieldhouse record (14:06.93) originally set by Purdue's Bill Shuey.
Wilson, a four-time indoor Big Ten Champion, shattered Illinois' Charlton Ehizuelen's triple jump distance of 54-9.5, a conference championship mark that had lasted since 1975.
Two other Lambert Fieldhouse records also fell Sunday. Illinois' Zachery Galvash's 1:16.96 in the 600 toppped Minnesota's Aaron Buzard's previous record of 1:18.05, which was set yesterday. Minnesota's Travis Brandstatter scored 5,660 points in the heptathlon to beat the previous high of 5,301 points, recorded by Purdue's Sam Killin at the 1996 Big Ten Indoor Championships.
Purdue next competes March 4 and 5 at the Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational. This is a last-chance meet for the Boilermakers in order to advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships at the University of Arkansas (March 12 and 13). Mulabegovic is the only Boilermaker so far to record an NCAA automatic mark.