Feb. 25, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Purdue University men's track and field team finished sixth overall with 71.5 points at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by Indiana University on Sunday. Senior Rickey Pinkney captured the three-peat in the 60-meter hurdles and recaptured the Purdue record clocking a time of 7.76 seconds.
The Boilermakers jumped to sixth from a 10th-place effort last year, finishing just a half point away from fifth place.
"For the most part we gave a great all-around effort today," said head coach Jack Warner. "Several guys set personal records and scored a lot of points, but we came up just shy of the top half, where we really wanted to finish."
Pinkney was victorious in the hurdles in a photo-finish, edging out Jeff Porter of Michigan by just 0.0019 seconds. Junior captain Brian Kaluf also placed in the hurdles, taking home fourth with a career-best time of 7.98 seconds. Pinkney also placed in the 60-meter dash, capturing fifth with a time of 6.89.
"Rickey gave a super effort in a great race, setting him up for NCAAs," said Warner. "Very few people win three straight Big Ten titles and Rickey's been able to do that. He's had an outstanding career at Purdue and I'm looking forward to seeing him complete that at the national meet."
Junior Andrew Rademacher surged up the standings in the heptathlon, climbing from 11th to third place with a final total of 5,158 points. He made his major move in the pole vault, grabbing 910 points with a height of 5.00 meters (16-04.75). His point total was just 202 points shy of the first-place finisher and 274 points shy of the Purdue record.
Other top placers for the Old Gold and Black were juniors Tyler Miller and Jh'Rome Tuggle, sophomores Nolan Petties, Zach Logan and Stephen Bach and freshman Lance Moe. Miller was seventh in the shot put with a career-best toss of 17.53 meters (57-06.25), while Tuggle was sixth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.65 seconds. Petties set a personal record in the triple jump, leaping 15.14 meters (49-08.25) to take sixth.
Logan and Moe also posted career bests, as Logan finished fourth and narrowly missed NCAA provisional qualification in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.60, while Moe marked 2.04 meters (6-08.25) in the high jump to tie for seventh. Bach gave a seventh-place effort in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.74.
The 4x400-relay squad of Tuggle, Kaluf, Logan and senior Terrell Thompson gave an incredible effort to close out the day, combining for a time of 3:12.13 to take third place. They missed second place by just 0.03 seconds and 1.06 seconds shy of the top spot, grabbed by Minnesota.
Select Boilermakers will compete a next weekend's Notre Dame Last Chance meet, while others will wait for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 9-10 in Fayetteville, Ark.