May 16, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Purdue senior Kara Patterson won her third career Big Ten women's javelin title to lead the Boilermakers at the second day of the conference track and field championships, hosted by Ohio State University at Jesse Owens Track Stadium. The Boilermaker women sit in fourth place with 42 points, while the men are in third with 30 points.
Patterson's javelin win gives the Boilermakers three gold medals in two days as she dominated the event with a mark of 57.47 meters (188-06), throwing nearly four meters better than the second place finisher. Freshman teammate Elaine Gilbert just missed scoring in the women's javelin as well, qualifying for the finals and finishing ninth overall with a career-best toss of 39.94 meters (131-00).
Junior Stacey Wannemacher continued her amazing conference championship performance, breaking her own Purdue outdoor shot put record with an impressive mark of 16.35 meters (53-07.75). Her mark was good for the silver medal on the day and lifts her to 11th in NCAA Division I. Freshman Terri Anderson finished just behind her, hurling a career-best 15.58 meters (51-01.50) to wear the bronze medal. Anderson's mark is fourth-best all-time in the Boilermakers' outdoor history and 14th in the Mideast region. Freshman Leah Eber picked up four more points for the Purdue women, taking fifth place in the long jump with a mark of 6.05 meters (19-10.25).
Several Purdue women posted excellent preliminary performances on the track, earning spots in tomorrow's finals. Juniors Nan Hammel and Kristin Phillips ran solid times in the 800- and 1,500-meter runs as Hammel posted the fourth-fastest qualifier and a personal record of 2:09.24, while Phillips snagged the last spot in the finals with a 4:27.65; just off her career-best. Senior Ranay Harvey mimicked Phillips' performance, grabbing the ninth and final spot in the women's 100-meter hurdles, competing in a very fast preliminary heat and crossing the line in 13.83.
Junior Adetayo Adesanya doubled-up for the Purdue men, capturing third in the high jump and fourth place in the long jump. He cleared a career-best 2.16 meters (7-01.00) in the high jump and bounced 7.11 meters (23-04.00) in the long jump. Fellow junior Chris Kirkwood became the Boilermakers' 11th NCAA Regional qualifier of the year, taking seventh place in the high jump with a career-best 2.10 meters (6-10.75).
Sophomore Bill Hardcastle hurled a season-best in the discus to exceed expectations and take home fourth place on the day. Fighting a windy afternoon, he came up with a mark of 51.38 meters (168-07) on his sixth and final throw to jump from eighth to fourth in the standings and grab five team points.
Junior Lance Moe wrapped up a career-best performance in the decathlon, earning seventh place with his 10-event total of 6,714 points. He opened the second day with 792 points in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.48, and followed with 548 more points with a mark of 36.24 meters (118-11) in the discus. Moe cleared 4.25 meters (13-11.25) to tack on 688 points in the pole vault, hurled the javelin 46.07 meters (151-02) to collect 531 points and wrapped up the day with a career-best time of 5:03.48 to add 540 points and edge out the eighth-place finisher by just one point.
A quartet of Purdue men advanced to tomorrow's finals on the track, including sophomore Josh Hembrough who looks to defend his 2008 Big Ten title in the 110-meter hurdles. Hembrough turned in the top preliminary time, fighting a stiff headwind to earn a time of 14.24. Fellow sophomore Shane Crawford notched the fourth-fastest preliminary time in the 100-meter dash, crossing the line in 10.72, while freshman teammate Mike Willey grabbed the ninth and final spot in the 200-meter dash finals with a career-best time of 21.41. Senior Stephen Bach clocked the No. 8 time in the 800-meter run preliminaries, just missing his personal record with a time of 1:50.33.
The final day of the championships kicks off tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m., with the men's pole vault as junior Eric Sparks hopes to win his second straight conference championship. The Purdue women start their day at 11 a.m., with the triple jump and the track events are scheduled to commence at 12:45 p.m., with the 4x100-meter relays.