April 29, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams are gearing up for their biggest meet and toughest challenge of the outdoor season this weekend, heading to Ohio State University for the 25th annual Jesse Owens Track Classic. The Boilermakers will face a trio of nationally-ranked squads on each side and as many as 41 of the nation's top-10 marks in respective events in NCAA Division I.
In its 25 years, the Jesse Owens Track Classic has played host to a long list of national and Olympic standouts, including John Drummond, Michelle Finn, Allen Johnson, Edwin Moses, Dwight Stones, Judi Brown, Roger Kingdom, Carl Lewis, Louise Ritter and Calvin Smith. This year's field could add to this list as 10th-ranked Mississippi State, 18th-ranked Virginia Tech and No. 24 Penn State will be in attendance on the men's side, while No. 5 Virginia Tech, 15th-ranked Penn State and 23rd-ranked Southern Illinois are set to compete in the women's events.
Three of the nation's top-ranked athletes are scheduled to be on hand, featuring the nation's No. 1 mark in the men's 10,000-meter run, men's hammer throw and women's 100- and 400-meter hurdles. While they won't be holding a 10K race this weekend, Michigan's Lex Williams owns the nation's fastest time in the event, posting a mark of 28:34.28 at the Stanford Invitational. The other top mark on the men's side belongs to Marcel Lomnicky of Virginia Tech as he threw the hammer 74.83 meters (245-06) at the Florida Relays. Virginia Tech's Queen Harrison owns the No. 1 time in the nation in both the women's 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, notching a time of 12.46 in the 100 and 54.66 in the 400. In addition, six other competitors enter Friday and Saturday's competition with the No. 2 mark in the nation, setting the weekend up for some top-flight competition.
Several events are set for elite competition for the Boilermakers this weekend, including the 800-meter run, high jump and shot put on the men's side and the 3,000-meter steeplechase, high jump and discus throw on the women's. The men's 800 offers junior Jacob Palmer a chance to leap into the nation limelight as he's one of four entries in his heat ranked in the top 100 in the nation. Joining him in the opening heat of the event are Kent State's Dustin Heasley, Ohio State's Jared Hall and Michigan State's Stephen Humes, and all four are separated by just 0.47 seconds in the current national standings. Heasley owns the top time of the group at 1:50.21, good for 56th in the country, while Palmer is the last time at 1:50.68, sitting 90th. They'll be joined in the race by a pair of post-graduates from the Indiana Invaders track team, providing depth and speed to the contest.
The men's high jump is set to feature nine of the top-75 athletes in the country, including seven of the Big Ten's best and three Boilermaker standouts. Purdue freshman Geoff Davis and Indiana's reigning Big Ten Men's Field Athlete of the Week Derek Drouin are currently tied for the sixth-highest clearance in the country at 2.22 meters (7-03.25) to headline the group, while Penn State's Ryan Fritz sits 18th in the country with a mark of 2.16 meters (7-01.00) and Michigan State's Kurt Schneider is 24th at 2.15 meters (7-00.50). The Boilermaker senior duo of Adetayo Adesanya and Lance Moe have season-best marks of 2.14 meters (7-00.25), good for 28th in the nation, and round out a list of six competitors in the field with top marks over the seven-foot barrier. Other highly-touted contenders in the field include Kenneth Agee of Kent State, Ryan Blake of Ohio State and David Serrano of the Miami University.
Freshman Jakob Engel and junior Bill Hardcastle are set to compete in possibly the most competitive field in men's action, taking part in the shot put on Saturday. The field includes 12 of the top-50 marks in the nation, all throwing over 17.50 meters and highlighted by Joe Kovacs of Penn State, who owns the country's No. 5 mark at 18.73 meters (61-05.50). He'll throw in the fourth flight alongside teammate Blake Eaton (No. 24), Buffalo's Robert Golabeck (No. 14), North Carolina State's Jason Jones (No. 14), Virginia Tech's Igor Misljenovic (No. 18) and Tyler Branch of the host Buckeyes (No. 27). Engel and Hardcastle enter the weekend respectively ranked 34th and 40th in the nation, with marks of 17.64 meters (57-10.50) and 17.61 meters (57-09.50), and will compete in the third flight against sixth other highly-touted athletes. Akron's Keith Huebner is tied with Engel at 34th, while Buffalo's duo of Jacob Madonia and Alexandros Stamatakis are 41st and 43rd, and Ohio State's Matt DeChant is 46th.
On the women's side, senior Sarah Klaczynski will get the weekend started Friday night, competing in a talented field in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 8 p.m. One of 12 of the country's top-100 runners in the event, she'll look to continue improving her career best time in the race, and climb the Boilermakers' all-time list in the event. Klaczynski has already cracked her personal record twice this season, reducing the time all the way to 10:45.12 at the Dave Rankin Invitational, good for fourth all-time at Purdue and 75th in the country. The 11 athletes participating in the first flight of Friday's race range from 40th to 82nd in the country this season and are separated by 12.33 seconds. Virginia Tech's Samantha Dow has the mark to chase, posting a time of 10:35.01 at the ACC Outdoor Championships and finishing second in the race. Ohio University's Jenielle Hunt has the second-best mark in the field at 10:39.77, and the Indiana sophomore duo of Breanne Ehrman and Caitlin Engel are bunched together at 10:40.46 and 10:41.10, respectively. Other standouts in the race include Miami University's Amanda Mirochna, Penn State's Nicole Lord and Kentucky's Andrea Richardson.
Like the men's competition, the women's high jump has a wealth of talent, including Boilermaker junior Emily Breslin who owns the No. 15 mark in the country at 1.80 meters (5-10.75). Six entries on Saturday's field have cleared at least 1.74 meters (5-08.50), led by Indiana's Ashley Rhoades, who has Breslin edged out for the Big Ten's top mark in the event at 1.81 meters (5-11.25). North Carolina State's Kayla Lawson is just behind Breslin and Rhoades at 1.79 meters (5-10.50), while Michigan State's Rebecca Buchholtz, Penn State's Brittany Maun and Ohio State's Ashley Galbraith could be in the mix as well.
The third and final flight of the women's discus throw is a who's-who of national standouts, including Boilermaker sophomore Terri Anderson, who heads into Saturday with a career-best mark of 51.27 meters (168-02), good for 24th in NCAA Division I. The field consists of three of the top-10 marks in the country, six of the top-15 and 13 of the top-50, including the nation's No. 2 throw at 55.71 meters (182-09) from Southern Illinois' Jeneva McCall and the fourth-longest toss in the nation of 55.43 meters (181-10) by Kentucky's Ashley Muffet. The Michigan pair of Emily and Erin Pendleton are sixth and 11th in the nation and 1-2 in the Big Ten at 53.98 meters (177-01) and 52.86 meters (173-05), while Kentucky's Mary Angel is 13th with a mark of 52.74 meters (173-00) and Kent State's Brittni Borrero is 14th at 42.34 meters (171-09). Rounding out the impressive field behind Anderson is Ashley Lawrence and Beth Rohl of Michigan State, Rebecca O'Brien of Buffalo, Brittany Smith of Illinois State, Sasha Leeth of Southern Illinois and Faith Sherrill of Indiana.
The weekend will kick off Friday at 2 p.m. with the men's hammer throw and men's and women's pole vaults, while Saturday's action will pick up at 11 a.m. with the men's and women's long jumps, the women's high jump and shot put and the men's discus. For more information on the Jesse Owens Track Classic, visit the Buckeyes' meet home page.