Feb. 27, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Freshman Dani Bunch gave the Boilermakers their second Big Ten Championship in as many days, leading the Purdue women's track and field team to an eighth-place showing with 56 points at the 2011 Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by the Boilermakers at Lambert Fieldhouse. Ohio State University captured the team title in impressive fashion, rolling out 122.5 points and winning its first-ever indoor conference title.
Bunch followed junior teammate Leah Eber's lead from Saturday, taking the Big Ten weight throw title in dramatic fashion with a career-best mark of 20.54 meters (67-04.75). Bunch threw an opening mark of 19.84 meters (65-01.25), good enough to advance to finals with the No. 2 mark after the prelims, and that held as her best after five throws. She was passed for second in the fourth round by Ohio State's Maggie Mullens, while Beth Rohl of Michigan State held the event lead at 20.33 meters (66-08.50). Stepping into the ring for her sixth and final throw, Bunch unleashed a monster throw, vaulting herself to ninth on the NCAA Division I list and likely earning a bid to the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Bunch becomes the first Purdue woman to win a Big Ten weight throw title since Toyinda Smith's back-to-back conference crowns in 1998 and 1999, and it marks the first year for the Boilermaker women with multiple indoor Big Ten Champions since 2002, when Lindsay Zinn won the 3,000-meter run and Ebbie Metzinger topped the pole vault.
Senior captain Stacey Wannemacher followed Bunch in the weight throw, scoring in her second event of the championships with a seventh-place effort. Wannemacher had a top throw of 18.67 meters (61-03.00), which came on her third throw of the day.
Eber backed up yesterday's Big Ten Championship in the long jump with a personal record and sixth-place finish in the triple jump. Eber had several jumps over her previous career best of 11.85 meters (38-10.50), posting her top mark of the afternoon on her first jump of the finals at 12.43 meters (40-09.50). Senior teammate Emily Breslin added eight more points and came up just shy of a third conference championship, finishing second in the high jump with a mark of 1.79 meters (5-10.50). She appeared to have the gold in hand, clearing her personal best height on the first attempt, but Wisconsin's Monika Jakutyte cleared the 1.79-meter bar on her third and final attempt and then made the next bar of 1.82 meters (5-11.50) on her second attempt to win the event.
The Purdue 4x400-meter relay team of freshman Ebony Woodard, senior NaTasha Blair, freshman Taylor Morrison and junior Janan Graham game an impressive effort in the first of two heats, crossing the line in 3:45.87 to finish seventh. The Boilermakers' 56 team points is their second highest over the last nine years behind last year's 71-point and sixth-place performance.
Ohio State ran away with the team title, dominating the sprint events with multiple scorers in each. The Buckeyes went first and second in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles as Madison Mcnary won the dash in 7.27 followed by Christina Manning in 7.29, while Manning took the hurdles crown and posted the NCAA's No. 1 time this season in 8.01, while teammate Letecia Wright notched the second-fastest time in the country at 8.03. Manning, Mcnary and Wright also went second, third and sixth in the 200-meter dash, behind three-time event champion Shavon Greaves of Penn State.
Other impressive individual performances on Sunday came from Michigan State's Emily MacLeod and Ashley Stacey and Michigan's Jillian Smith. MacLeod edged out Iowa's Betsy Flood for the second straight day, backing up yesterday's 3,000-meter run title with an amazing 5,000-meter run finish and second conference title as she out-leaned Flood by 0.02 seconds in the 5,000, finishing in 16:25.65. Stacey used her final attempt in the triple jump to vault herself from sixth to first, bouncing 12.69 meters (41-07.75) and surpassing the three favorites to win the crown. Smith fractured the Lambert Fieldhouse record on her way to the 800-meter run title, crossing the line in 2:06.92.
Smith's Wolverine teammate Rebecca Addison captured the mile crown in 4:42.99, while Illinois' Ashley Kelly won the 400-meter dash in 54.54 and Iowa's Bethany Praska took the 600-meter run in 1:28.99. Penn State dominated the 4x400-meter relay, smashing the facility record in 3:37.80. The Big Ten Conference awards for Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Athlete of the Championships and Freshman of the Year will be announced on Monday or Tuesday.
Select Boilermakers continue the indoor season next weekend, competing at an undetermined Last Chance meet, attempting to advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
FINAL TEAM SCORES
1) Ohio State - 122.5
2) Penn State - 86
3) Minnesota - 73
4) Michigan - 68.5
5) Indiana - 67
6) Michigan State - 65
7) Illinois - 61
8) Iowa - 56
8) Purdue - 56
10) Wisconsin - 47