Feb. 13, 2010
ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams had a strong finish at the Grand Valley State University Big Meet, posting eight top-three performances on Saturday, including a trio of event winners. The Boilermakers' top showings came in the men's and women's triple jumps as seniors Adetayo Adesanya and Christina Madison posted career best marks in their respective victories.
Adesanya topped the men's field with a leap of 15.04 meters (49-04.25), topping his previous career best mark by 0.4 meters (2-04.75) and climbing to fifth in the current Big Ten standings. Madison scored her second straight personal record in the event, bouncing 12.60 meters (41-04.25) and improving her fifth-best mark in Purdue's indoor history. She's third in the conference this season behind Wisconsin's Chavon Robinson and senior teammate Nkeiru Ugwoaba, and is just five centimeters shy of the NCAA provisional standard.
Junior Josh Hembrough was the third event winner for the Boilermakers on Saturday topping the field in the men's 60-meter hurdles. Hembrough posted a time of 8.05 in the preliminaries to advance to the finals, where he repeated the time for the win. Classmate Shane Crawford was third overall in the men's 60-meter dash, but the top collegiate finisher as he ran a time of 6.76 in the prelims and tied his season best of 6.72 in the finals. Junior Chris Kirtz rounded out the Boilermakers' success in the sprints area, taking third in the 200-meter dash with a career-best time of 21.98, good for the team's top mark in the event this season.
Purdue saw some success in the distance area as well as the distance medley relay squad posted the second-fastest mark in the Big Ten this season, while sophomore Cale Allen senior Kristin Phillips ran personal records in the 3,000-meter run. Freshman Simon Rogers and Mitch Keyser teamed with sophomore Ladd Mercer and junior Jacob Palmer for a time of 9:59.17 in the distance medley relay, taking fourth on the day and trailing only Ohio State in the conference standings. Allen smashed his previous record in the 3K by more than 15 seconds, crossing the line in 8:18.97 on Saturday. Phillips took home second place overall and topped her previous best in the 3K by over seven seconds, finishing in 9:53.68.
The Boilermakers have just one meet left before the Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosting the Boilermaker Invitational next Saturday in Lambert Fieldhouse.