Feb. 27, 2009
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's track and field team heads to State College, Pa., set to compete in the 2009 Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by Penn State at the Ashenfelter Multi-Sport Facility on Saturday and Sunday. The Boilermakers are coming off their best performance in school history at the indoor conference meet and look to follow up on it this weekend.
Purdue took second place at the conference meet in Madison, Wis., in 2008, scoring a school record 102 team points on the strength of four individual event champions. Former Boilermakers Jon Pullum and Jh'Rome Tuggle won the weight throw and 200-meter dash, respectively, while junior Adetayo Adesanya topped the high jump and sophomore Josh Hembrough bested the 60-meter hurdles field. Hembrough won the fourth consecutive 60-meter hurdle title for the Boilermakers, dating to the 2005 championships, and was named 2008 Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year for his accomplishments.
Other place-winning returners for the Boilermakers include Second-Team All-Big Ten honoree Eric Sparks, seniors Ben Pax and Ben Harpenau, junior Lance Moe and sophomore Bill Hardcastle. Sparks and Pax were second and sixth in the pole vault at last year's conference championships and are currently tied for the fourth-highest mark in the Big Ten at 5.20 meters (17-00.75) this season. Harpenau missed point-winning status in 2008, but earned the bronze medal in the weight throw in 2007. He's lifted his career best to an impressive 20.32 meters (66-08.00) this season, good for NCAA provisional qualification and third in the conference standings. Moe was sixth in the high jump last year, and while he hopes to improve in the open field this year, he'll also add the heptathlon to his entry list and looks to score team points there as well. Hardcastle took fifth in the shot put at the 2008 indoor conference meet, and followed up with the shot put title at the outdoor championships en route to Big Ten Outdoor Athlete of the Year, Athlete of the Championship and Freshman of the Year recognition.
The Boilermakers will also try to repeat a solid performance from last year's distance medley relay competition. Two of the four members of last year's group return in sophomores Andy Dunn and Matt De Silva, who are anticipated to run the 400-meter and one-mile legs of this year's group alongside first-years Ladd Mercer and Carter Denne.
The weekend's action kicks off on Saturday at 10 a.m. with the heptathlon 60-meter dash and will run through the final event, the 4x400-meter relay, on Sunday at 3:25 p.m. For more information on the championships, visit the host site here.