GENEVA, Ohio - The Boilermakers got off to a good start at the indoor Big Ten Championships on Friday at the SPIRE Institute. Purdue broke one school record and recorded a handful of top ten marks on a day that featured several Boilermakers advancing to Saturday finals.
"I thought the women competed really well today," head coach Lonnie Greene said. "It played out exactly as we thought it would. Tomorrow, we just need to take care of business and capitalize where we can score. We just have to do what we have to do and we'll be in good shape. This was the best first day of Big Tens since I've been here."
Devynne Charlton and Carmiesha Cox continued their dominant sophomore season. The Bahamians both qualified for the 60-meter and 200-meter dash finals, while Charlton also made it through to the 60m hurdles finals. The 60m dash was first and Charlton auto-qualified with a second place time of 7.41 seconds. That time was the second-best of her season and behind only Michigan's Cindy Ofili, who ran a 7.37, the top time in the trials. Cox was in the third heat and won with a time of 7.44 seconds to automatically qualify. Savannah Carson was also in the third heat and qualified after finishing third with a time of 7.50 seconds. Carson was an at-large qualifier and the final one to make it. She advanced by 0.006 of a second and will race in Saturday's championship. No other school has more than one individual in the 60m dash finals, while the Boilermakers have three.
In the 200m dash, there were seven flights, meaning no automatic qualifiers; just the top eight times would advance to the Saturday final. Cox took no chances and ran the fastest time of the entire trial, posting a school-record time of 23.68 seconds. Charlton also won her heat with a huge personal record time of 23.82 seconds. She became just the second Purdue woman, also Cox, to run the indoor 200m dash in less than 24 seconds. She qualified with the fifth-best time overall and the No. 2 time in Purdue history. Two heats later, Brionna Thomas would join the sub-24-second club, as she ran a time of 23.97 seconds, the third-fastest time in school history, and finished 12th in the event. Purdue and Nebraska are the only two schools with multiple qualifiers in the women's 200m dash. Charlton was also very impressive in the hurdles. She won her by 0.19 of a second with a time of 8.23 seconds. Her time was the second-fastest of prelims.
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi was Purdue's top finisher on the opening day of the championships. The junior competed in the shot put and took second place with a best throw of 18.84m (61-9.75). Enekwechi entered finals in fourth place with a mark of 18.36m (60-2.75), but on his fourth attempt launched his silver-medal winning throw. Enekwechi earned eight points for the Boilermakers. He has scored in the event all three years at the indoor conference meet, with a sixth-place finish as a freshman and bronze medal finish a year ago. Enekwechi has now scored 29 points in his career at the indoor meet, and will compete in the weight throw Saturday, where he enters with the second-best mark in the conference.
Jake Waterman added a couple of points to the men's total with a strong effort in the 3,000-meter run. Waterman took seventh overall with a time of 8:14.36 to give two points to the men's side.
The women's distance medley relay team was the women's team's highest finisher among Friday's scored events. The team of Hope Schmelzle, Taylor Dunlap, Vanessa McLeod and Katie Hoevet took third with a time of 11:12.67. The team, running together for the first time this season, posted the second-fastest time in school history en route to their bronze medal finish.
The women's milers also had a great day on the track. Hoevet ran the fastest time at Purdue in 27 years, since 1988, as she finished second in her heat and third overall with a time of 4:42.64. Her time, which was a PR by nearly a second and a half, ranks third in school history. Kiara McIntosh also had a career day in the mile where she was the second Boilermaker to qualify for finals. McIntosh finished fourth in the second heat with a PR time of 4:44.82. That time ranks fifth in school history. Schmelzle also qualified for the 10-runner finals as she finished 10th overall with a time of 4:45.38. That time was a PR by more than seven seconds and ranks sixth in school history. Purdue and Michigan lead the way with three qualifiers each, while no other school had more than one.
Elizabeth Iversen had the best day of her young Boilermaker career and kept a Purdue streak alive. Iversen PRed with a mark of 14.82m (48-7.50), a career best by 11 inches, finished sixth and gave the women three points. Iversen's finish kept Purdue's streak of scoring in the women's shot put alive and improved it to nine straight years.
The Purdue women advanced one individual in the 400m dash, continuing its great day in the sprints. Freshman Symone Black ran the fifth -fastest time through all six heats with a time of 54.50 seconds. Aarin Jones ran into a bit of misfortune, as since there were more than five heats, the qualifiers were decided by the top eight times, instead of automatic qualifiers. Jones ran a time of 55.00 seconds to run away with her heat by 0.88 of a second, but her mark was 0.03 of a second outside the top eight. Jones took ninth overall.
The Boilermaker men also had a qualifier in the 400m dash. Obokhare Ikpefan PRed with the sixth-fastest time in school history, a time of 47.46 seconds. His time is the fastest by a Boilermaker since 2001. Ikpefan snuck in with the eighth qualifying spot and will compete in Saturday's final. Nicholas Parks also competed in the event and had a huge PR. Parks ran a time of 47.60 seconds to finish 10th.
Vanessa McLeod qualified for the 800m finals with the fifth-fastest time on the day. McLeod, running at SPIRE for the first time since she won the 800m Big Ten Championship in 2013, ran a season-best time of 2:08.49 to earn the first at-large spot. Makayla Earnheart qualified in the 600m run with a huge PR. Earnheart ran a time of 1:30.75, a PR of more than three seconds, to grab the second at-large spot in the 16-runner final. Earnheart's time was fourth-fastest overall in the trials and ranks fifth in school history.
Byron Ferrell had his best day of the season in the pole vault. Ferrell cleared 5.17m (16-11.50) to take fifth overall and score four points for the Boilers. Tyler Askew also added a point to the men's side. He finished in a three-way tie for seventh in the long jump with a best of 7.16m (23-6.00).
The Boilermakers had a few other PRs on the day. Kendall Hacker won the unseeded section of the women's 3k with a time of 9:47.23. That time improved her personal best by more than 22 seconds, and she finished 14th overall, including ahead of six runners from the seeded section. Gabrielle Broschard also PRed in the 3k after running a time of 9:49.52. Patrick Dalton and David Dalton PRed in the men's 3k. Both finished with times under 8:40.
Saturday will be an exciting, busy day for the Boilermakers with many entrants in final events. Live results will be available on PurdueSports.com. The most up-to-the-minute results will be found on the Game Day Central page on the Purdue track and field page at PurdueSports.com. Fans can also follow the action on Twitter @PurdueTrackXC.