March 1, 2008
MADISON, Wis. - The Purdue men's track and field team sits in third place with 32 team points after the first day of competition at the 2008 Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by the University of Wisconsin on Saturday. The Boilermakers placed high in a trio of events, taking a silver and two bronze medals.
The Boilermakers' distance medley relay squad of sophomore Reese Byerrum and freshmen Matt De Silva, Alex Folk and Andy Dunn gave an outstanding effort, placing third with a season-best time of 9:57.06.
Sophomore Eric Sparks was the Boilermakers' top placer of the first day, taking home the silver medal in the pole vault with a career-best height of 5.13 meters (16-10.00). Junior Ben Pax joined Sparks in the pole-vault scoring, grabbing sixth with a career-best of 5.03 meters (16-06.00).
Senior Tyler Miller and freshman Billy Hardcastle doubled up in the shot put, taking home third and fifth, respectively, with career-best marks. Miller hurled it 18.12 meters (59-05.50), greatly improving his chances for a bid to the NCAA Indoor Championships, while Hardcastle fell just shy of the national provisional standard with a throw of 17.73 meters (58-02.00). Junior Nolan Petties grabbed fourth in the long jump, hitting the sand in 7.33 meters (24-00.75), and returns tomorrow in hope of scoring in the triple jump.
Freshman Josh Hembrough clocked the fastest 60-meter hurdle preliminary time, breaking the tape in 7.83, and senior teammate Brian Kaluf wasn't far behind, posting a time of 8.08. Kaluf cruised to Sunday's finals with a semifinal time of 8.04, while Hembrough continued his march as well, winning his semifinal heat in 7.85.
Senior Jh'Rome Tuggle advanced to tomorrow's finals in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, winning his 200 heat with a time of 21.55 and posting the fifth-fastest qualifier in the 400 at 48.94. Junior Stephen Bach moved on to tomorrow as well, clocking the third-fastest 600-meter dash time in school history at 1:19.21.
Senior Andrew Rademacher is in 14th place in the heptathlon with 2,549 points after the first four events. He will look to make a similar comeback to last year's indoor championships as tomorrow features his strongest event, the pole vault.
Tomorrow's action starts at 10:15 a.m. with the heptathlon 60-meter hurdles.