Feb. 22, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams scored a pair of Big Ten Athlete Of The Week honors on Monday as sophomore Mike Willey was named the men's track athlete of the week, while senior Brianna Neumann grabbed women's field athlete of the week. Both Boilermakers had outstanding performances at the Boilermaker Invitational on Saturday as Willey posted a Big Ten-leading mark, while Neumann tied a school and fieldhouse record.
Willey took the conference by storm in the men's 200-meter dash on Saturday, crossing the line in 21.79 on the Boilermakers' 200-meter track in Lambert Fieldhouse. After conversion to an oversized or banked track standard, his mark of 21.39 is the best in the conference this season and just 0.16 seconds shy of the NCAA provisional standard. He also smashed his personal record in the 60-meter hurdles, shaving a tenth of a second to post a time of 8.12 in the preliminaries.
Neumann matched the Boilermakers' indoor school record and Lambert Fieldhouse record with a mark of 4.25 meters (13-11.25) in the women's pole vault on Saturday, locking up a trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships with the automatic qualifying standard. She becomes the first Purdue woman to clear the height since Ebbie Metzinger set the record on Feb. 2, 2002, and is the second athlete to clear the mark at Lambert this season, sharing the record with Indiana State's Kylie Hutson. By clearing the NCAA automatic standard, Neumann secures her first career trip to the national indoor championships, which are scheduled for Mar. 12-13, at the University of Arkansas.
The Boilermaker squads split up this weekend for the Big Ten Indoor Championships as the men head to the University of Minnesota, while the women travel east to Penn State University. A full preview of both events will be available this week at PurdueSports.com.