March 5, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's and women's track and field teams put forth some outstanding efforts in final attempts to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday. The Boilermakers' four entries all performed well, but are not likely to qualify for the national meet at Texas A&M University next weekend.
Senior Shane Crawford was the only one of the four to improve his season best on Saturday, dropping his time in the men's 60-meter dash to 6.68 seconds. He cruised through the preliminaries with a time of 6.76 seconds, and then topped the field in the finals. Fellow senior Bill Hardcastle came up just shy of his career best in the men's shot put, placing third overall with a toss of 18.37 meters (60-03.25).
Freshman Dani Bunch and senior Stacey Wannemacher went 1-2 in the women's shot put, throwing 15.86 meters (52-00.50) and 15.70 meters (51-06.25), respectively. Bunch is set to head to nationals in the weight throw, where she holds the No. 10 mark in the country. Junior teammate Leah Eber is currently tied for 16th in the nation in the women's long jump and will await word of a possible trip to College Station, Tex., while sophomore Geoff Davis appears to be the lone men's qualifier, sitting ninth in NCAA Division I.