Jan. 12, 2008
Complete Results | Photo Gallery 
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams opened their indoor seasons on Saturday, hosting the Purdue Invitational. The Boilermakers posted a trio of NCAA provisional qualifying marks, while two others fell just shy of national qualification with very impressive marks.
Purdue dominated the men's and women's weight throws with NCAA provisional qualifiers as sophomore Jon Pullum won the men's field with a career-best mark of 20.87 meters (68-05.75), while senior Astin Steward topped the women's side with a throw of 19.58 meters (64-03). Pullum's mark is the fourth-best in school history and 0.63 meters shy of automatic qualification for nationals.
Freshman Josh Hembrough grabbed the Boilermakers' third provisional mark of the day, posting a time of 7.90 seconds in the men's 60-meter hurdles. In his first collegiate race he notched the fourth-fasted time in Purdue history.
Also starring in his first collegiate meet was rookie Shane Crawford, who topped the men's 60-meter dash in 6.78 seconds. His time is tied for the fourth-fastest in school history, matching the mark run by Joey Harris in 2003. He was just four hundredths of a second short of the NCAA provisional qualifying standard and eight hundredths off the Purdue record, currently held by Kenneth Baxter.
Sophomore Stacey Wannemacher put up her career-best indoor mark in the women's shot put, launching it 15.12 meters (49-07.25). Her throw is the third-best in Purdue's indoor history and was just 0.08 meters shy of the NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
Other Purdue event winners were seniors Leah Kincaid, Tyler Miller and Rayland Currie, juniors Mallory Peck, Jh'Rome Tuggle and Lauren Scott, sophomores Ashlee Lengacher, Christina Madison, Adetayo Adesanya, and Kristin Phillips, and freshmen Alex Folk.
Kincaid was a double-winner taking the women's long jump and 60-meter hurdles. She topped the long jump with a mark of 5.90 meters (19-04.25) and won the hurdles with a time of 8.61. Miller won the men's shot put with a toss of 16.96 meters (55-07.75), while Currie took home the men's triple jump with a leap of 14.62 meters (47-11.75). Peck earned gold in the women's pole vault, clearing 3.80 meters (12-05.50) and Tuggle and Scott grabbed the men's and women's 400-meter dash titles in 49.40 and 58.39, respectively.
Lengacher eclipsed her career-best mark in the women's 800-meter run by more than two seconds, breaking the tape to win in 2:14.00, and Phillips won the women's 3,000-meter run in 10:15.44. Madison topped the women's triple jump with a mark of 11.65 meters (38-02.75), while Adesanya won the men's high jump, clearing 1.99 meters (6-06.25). Freshman Alex Folk won his first collegiate race in dominating fashion, crossing the line nearly two seconds ahead of the next competitor at 4:17.64.
The Old Gold and Black capped off the day with wins in the men's and women's 4x400-meter relays. The men broke the tape in 3:23.17, while the women topped the field in 3:55.39.
The Boilermakers look to continue their early-season success next weekend as they head down to Bloomington, Ind. for the Big Ten/SEC Challenge, hosted by Indiana University.