April 15, 2006
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Purdue's women's track and field team was no match for the competition at the Indiana State/Rose-Hulman Pacesetter Invitational. The Boilermakers won the team title with 280 points, 104 points ahead of the runner-up Sycamores.
Leah Kincaid was responsible for most of the damage Saturday. The sophomore won both the triple and long jumps, the 100-meter hurdles and ran on both winning 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays. The team of Kincaid, Lindsay Singleton, Tiffany Colvin and Ina Jackson finished the 400-meter course with a season best time of 46.83 seconds. And her 1600-meter team finished its race in 3:48.27.
During Friday night's action, Kincaid ran the anchor leg of the 4x100 shuttle hurdles, which finished first in 58.70. Kincaid teamed with Ranay Harvey, LaShauna Harris and Singleton.
In addition to Kincaid's accomplishments, the Boilermaker women won 10 additional events over the course of the two-day, eight-team invitational. On the track, races were won by Harris (200), Jackson (400), Corrie Whisner (1500), Carrie Fett (5K) and Amber Ferner (3K Steeplechase).
In the field, Kara Patterson lost her first javelin competition of the season to unattached competitor Iryna Kharun, who is a former Ukrainian national record holder and 2004 Olympic qualifier. Patterson's throw of 47.20 meters (154 feet - 10 inches) was a foot short of Kharun's best attempt, which measured at 155-10 (47.49 meters).
The Boilermaker women had a pair of first/second showings in both the pole vault and discus. Brianna Neumann and Mallory Peck each reached a top height of 3.95 meters (12-11.50); however, Neumann won on the tiebreaker. In the discus, Lindsay Polhemus defeated teammate Mandy Bodnar for the top spot, 44.26 meters (145-02) to 41.02 (134-07).
Friday, Sheena James won the shot put crown with a toss of 14.63 meters (48-00.00).
Purdue's men's team did not have a strong as showing as the women, settling for a third-place score of 136 points. Indiana State won the men's title with 263 points and Eastern Illinois was second with 141 points.
Sophomore Jh'Rome Tuggle led Purdue with two victories. Tuggle won the 200- and 400-meter dashes with season-best times of 21.25 and 47.59. Also winning on the track were Justin Stadt in the 5K and Rickey Pinkney in the 100-meter dash.
Pinkney was close to winning two races, but finished second to unattached competitor Aubrey Herring in the 110-meter hurdles, 14.11 to 14.22. Herring is a former Indiana State All-American in the hurdles.
Purdue scored two wins in the field. Andrew Rademacher tied a personal best with a leap of 4.90 meters (16-00.75) in the pole vault and James Paul Schwingendorf won the javelin with a measurement of 57.70 meters (189-04).
Next weekend, Purdue competes at the Louisville Cardinal Invitational on April 22nd as a warmup to the Penn Relays, which runs from April 27 to 29 in downtown Philadelphia.