March 24, 2011
Purdue Track & Field on Facebook
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams start their respective outdoor seasons this weekend, heading to Mississippi State University for the 2011 SEC/Big Ten Challenge. The Bulldogs will host Saturday's action at Carl Maddox Track in the newly renovated W.O. Spencer Stadium.
Saturday's meet will be a scored contest, pitting four squads from each conference against the other in a battle for league supremacy. The Big Ten will be represented by the Boilermakers, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio State, while Mississippi State, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi will compete for the Southeastern Conference. The top four finishers from each conference will score in each event with a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring format, and scoring positions can come from any heat or section of an event.
"This will be a great event for us to start the outdoor season," said Boilermaker head coach Jack Warner. "It gives our team a chance to head south for some warm weather, plus we'll have the added element of competition. It's an opportunity to not only compete for Purdue, but for the whole conference."
With the start of the outdoor campaign comes several new opportunities for the Boilermakers as they discard the 60-meter races and weight throw competition and add in 100-meter sprints and hurdles as well as several throwing events. The most exciting of these opportunities come in the discus and hammer throw, where the Old Gold and Black return a pair of Big Ten Champions.
Senior Bill Hardcastle already has a pair of men's discus conference titles to his credit, and will look to add to those and more in 2011. He has a career-best toss of 57.13 meters (187-05) in the event, good for third all-time at Purdue and the 2008 conference title , and had a 2010 season best of 54.86 meters (180-00) at the Big Ten Championships to win it a second time. Hardcastle is also a two-time NCAA Outdoor Championship qualifier in the shot put with a career best of 18.85 meters (61-10.25), also third all-time at Purdue and good for the 2008 Big Ten Championship, and has made huge strides in the hammer throw over the past three seasons.
Classmate Stacey Wannemacher has been a major force on the Big Ten scene in the shot put, discus and hammer throw in her career, and looks to finish up in strong fashion this spring. She won the 2009 Big Ten Championship in the hammer throw with a career-best mark of 58.10 meters (190-07), good for the fifth-best throw in school history. She also owns the Boilermakers' outdoor record in the shot put with a throw of 16.53 meters (54-02.75), which earned her 2009 All-America honors, and the sixth-best discus mark in school history at 50.10 meters (164-04). Junior Terri Anderson adds even more depth in the women's throws area, boasting some of the top discus throws in school history and a third-place effort in the event at the 2010 Big Ten Championships. Her mark of 52.99 meters (173-10) is the second-longest throw in school history and is just under a meter shy of the school record.
Other anticipated outdoor debuts for this weekend include senior Shane Crawford in the men's 100-meter dash, freshman Mitch Erickson in the men's pole vault, senior NaTasha Blair in the women's 400-meter hurdles and junior Elaine Gilbert in the women's javelin. Crawford is the most healthy he's been heading into his final outdoor campaign, looking to breakthrough in the 100-meter dash on the Big Ten and national scene. He's only been able to run the event a handful of times in college, posting a top mark of 10.62 seconds, but has a career best of 10.33 seconds at the 2007 USA Junior Championships.
Erickson is set to return to the runway after missing the last year of competition with an injury. He had a solid indoor rookie season in 2010, clearing 5.20 meters (17-00.75) and a NCAA Indoor Championship preliminary qualification mark, but missed all of the 2010 outdoor season and this year's indoor campaign. He'll look to put up a big number on Saturday alongside senior teammate Chris Thoman and sophomores Zack Saunders and Kyle Campbell.
Blair is in search of a breakout senior season in the 400-meter hurdles, coming off a solid 2010 outdoor season and a series of career bests in this year's indoor meets. She ran her career-best time twice last season, including a 12th-place finish at the Big Ten Championships with a mark of 1:01.07. She dropped her indoor 400-meter dash mark to 56.51 this season, and will look for that to carry over in the hurdles.
A two-time Big Ten Championship finalist in the javelin, Gilbert looks to continue climbing the conference ladder in 2011. She scored for the first time at the conference meet in 2010, taking seventh with a mark of 36.00 meters (118-01), but has a career best of 39.94 meters (131-00) from the 2009 conference championships, where she finished ninth.
Live results of the Boilermakers' action will be available on Saturday on the Boilermakers Official Twitter Page (http://bit.ly/hldRfN) and Facebook Page (http://on.fb.me/e11Z7I), in addition to Delta Timing Group's results at deltatiming.com.