Feb. 24, 2011
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue women's track and field team is set to play host to the 2011 Big Ten Women's Indoor Championships, scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Lambert Fieldhouse. This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the Boilermakers' lone indoor conference title and the last time Purdue hosted the women's indoor championships.
Tickets for this weekend's meet are available at the Purdue ticket office (1-800-497-7678) as an all-session pass is $12 for adults and $8 for students or children, while single-session passes are $7 and $5. Doors will open approximately one hour before the start of competition each day, marking 8 a.m. as the opening on Saturday and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Live updates will be posted throughout the championships at the Official Purdue Track & Field Twitter Page and Purdue Track & Field Facebook Page, while live results will be provided by Delta Timing Group.
Purdue has an incredibly young squad set to vie for conference glory as 13 of their 29 entries are freshman, while six other Boilermakers will be competing in their first indoor championship meet. Of their 10 returners with championship experience, four have previous placewinning performances, highlighted by senior captain Stacey Wannemacher. With five Big Ten Championship scoring efforts, including a pair of medal-winning efforts in 2010, Wannemacher leads the Boilermakers' deepest and most dangerous area for scoring. After taking seventh in the shot put as a freshman, and fifth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put and weight throw as a sophomore, Wannemacher broke out in 2010, taking the silver medal in the weight throw and the bronze in the shot put. She owns the Purdue indoor record in the shot put at 16.47 meters (54-00.50) and ranks fourth all-time at Purdue in the weight throw with a mark of 19.90 meters (65-03.50). Despite earning 2010 All-America honors with a seventh-place showing at indoor nationals, Wannemacher does not boast the Boilermakers' top marks in the throws area this season. She sits fifth in the Big Ten in the shot put with a season-best of 15.78 meters (51-09.25) and ninth in the weight throw at 18.54 meters (60-10.00).
Freshman Dani Bunch has exploded on to the conference and national scene in her inaugural campaign, owning top-three conference marks and top-20 national marks in the shot put and weight throw. She's second in the Big Ten and 13th in NCAA Division I in the weight throw with a toss of 20.06 meters (65-09.75), surpassing Wannemacher for third all-time at Purdue, and is third in the conference and 20th in the nation in the shot put at 16.07 meters (52-08.75), good for second all-time indoors on the Boilermaker record lists. In addition to chasing a conference championship, Bunch looks to become the Boilermakers' first indoor conference freshman of the year since Lindsay Zinn in 2002.
Junior Terri Anderson and freshman Liberty Slinden round out the Boilermakers' depth in the shot put, owning two more of the top-10 conference throws to give Purdue four of the top-10 marks in the Big Ten. Anderson, the 2009 Big Ten Outdoor Freshman of the Year and a two-time indoor shot put placewinner, is notorious for big marks at the conference meet, including an indoor career-best toss of 15.52 meters (50-11.00) to take fourth at the 2010 Big Ten Indoor Championships. She has a top throw of 14.98 meters (49-01.75) this season, good for eighth in the conference, while Slinden looks to pick up points in her first conference competition, owning the No. 10 mark in the Big Ten at 14.83 meters (48-08.00).
The Boilermakers' other two returning point scorers are senior Emily Breslin and junior Leah Eber, set to compete in the high jump and long jump, respectively. Breslin took seventh in the high jump as a sophomore and fourth as a junior, but enters this weekend's competition tied for the top mark in the conference at 1.79 meters (5-10.50). She and Ohio State junior Ashley Galbraith both cleared the mark at the Kentucky Rod McCravy Memorial on Jan. 28, and are tied for the 19th-best mark in NCAA Division I this season. Breslin has a pair of Big Ten Outdoor Championship medals, finishing second in 2009 and third in 2010, and is looking to add an indoor award to her collection on Sunday.
Eber medaled at the indoor and outdoor conference meets in 2010, taking bronze indoors and silver outdoors, and is another Boilermaker eying gold this weekend. Sharing the Purdue indoor record with former Boilermaker standout Leah Kincaid at 6.23 meters (20-05.50), Eber owns a season best of 6.07 meters (19-11.00), good for third in the Big Ten this year. Freshman teammate Nikki Nunn is hot on Eber's heels in the conference, ranking fourth with her career best of 6.03 meters (19-09.50) at the Grand Valley State Big Meet. Alongside Boilermaker rookie Ivana Vukomanovic, Eber will compete in the triple jump as well, where Eber shares the No. 9 mark in the Big Ten at 11.85 meters (38-10.50).
Other Boilermakers looking to get in the scoring column include junior Elizabeth Stover, sophomore Kari Shoolbraid and freshman Emily Becker, who all own top-eight conference marks in their respective events this season. Stover cleared an indoor career best 3.95 meters (12-11.50) in the pole vault at the Grand Valley State Big Meet, good for the No. 5 mark in the Big Ten, while Shoolbraid's career best effort of 2:09.74 in the 800-meter run (also at Grand Valley State) is the eighth-fastest time in the conference this year. Becker is set to compete in the pentathlon on Saturday, where her season best of 3,310 points is good for the No. 8 total in the Big Ten. She put the total together at the Grand Valley State Big Meet, running 9.29 second in the 60-meter hurdles, clearing 1.67 meters (5-05.75) in the high jump, tossing 9.76 meters (32-00.25) in the shot put, leaping 4.69 meters (15-04.75) in the long jump and completing the 800-meter run in 2:33.43. She has better marks this season in four of the five events and looks to better her total this weekend.
Michigan owns the lone USTFCCCA ranking in the conference, sitting 13th in the latest poll, while Indiana sits just outside the top-25 at 29th in the nation. Penn State looks to defend its 2010 conference title after snapping Minnesota's three-year Big Ten Championship streak from 2007-09. The Nittany Lions return the 2010 Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year in senior Shavon Greaves, who owns the top times in the conference this season in the 60-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dashes, while Indiana's Faith Sherrill looks to defend her 2010 Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships honors, heading into the weekend with the nation's top shot put mark at 18.00 meters (59-00.75).
For more information on this weekend's competition visit the Boilermakers' host championship site. A full recap of each day of competition will be available upon the completion of events at PurdueSports.com.