Feb. 27, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Purdue men's track and field team got off to a great start at the 2010 Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by the University of Minnesota at University Fieldhouse on Saturday. The Boilermakers put together 31 points on the strength of three medalist performances and sit in third place in the team standings after the first day of competition.
Senior Eric Sparks earned his second career Big Ten Indoor Championship silver medal on Saturday, clearing 5.30 meters (17-04.50) in the pole vault and earning eight team points. Junior Chris Thoman and freshman Kyle Campbell picked up a little more for the Boilermakers in the event as the pair tied for eighth place and combined for a team point.
Junior Chris Kirtz posted a second-place finish as well, picking up the silver medal in the long jump with a mark of 7.21 meters (23-08.00). Kirtz tied for second with Ohio State freshman Korbin Smith, but had a longer second jump than Smith (7.19m-7.17m) to earn the eight points for Purdue. Senior Adetayo Adesanya leapt a career best 7.15 meters (23-05.50) to pick up four more team points with a fifth-place finish in the long jump as well.
The Boilermakers got six more team points from junior Bill Hardcastle as he tossed an indoor personal record for the second consecutive weekend in the shot put. Hardcastle marked 18.07 meters (59-03.50) to capture third place on the day, despite entering the championships with only the conference's sixth-highest mark.
The distance medley relay team of sophomores Gabe Pirtle and Ladd Mercer and freshmen Simon Rogers and Mitchel Keyser joined forces to score four more team points with a fifth-place finish, crossing the line in 9:52.84.
Four Boilermakers qualified for the finals in the track events, including junior Shane Crawford, who broke the Purdue record in the 60-meter dash. Crawford posted the top qualifying time on the day, speeding to a time of 6.67, which is good for NCAA provisional qualification and tied for 12th fastest in NCAA Division I this season.
Joining him tomorrow will be classmates Jacob Palmer and Josh Hembrough and sophomore Mike Willey. Palmer sped to an indoor career best time of 1:51.95 in the 800-meter run, finishing with the sixth-fastest preliminary time on the day, while Hembrough slipped into the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.11. Willey won an automatic spot in tomorrow's finals of the 200-meter dash, winning his heat with a time of 21.79, good for fourth fastest overall.
Purdue is already within 10.5 points of last year's team effort, looking to rejoin the conference elite in 2010. After four events, the host Golden Gophers hold the team lead with 49.5 points, while Ohio State is second with 40.5 points. The Boilermakers' hold a 12-point advantage over the current fourth-place team as Michigan has just 19 points.
Competition resumes tomorrow at 11:20 a.m. (EST) as senior Lance Moe continues the heptathlon competition in the 60-meter hurdles. Moe finished the first day in 10th place with 2,870 points, including a career-best mark of 2.14 meters (7-00.25) in the high jump for 934 points and an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.