May 12, 2001
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Thanks to a healthy contribution from their distance runners, the Western Kentucky University men's and women's track teams both stand in fifth place at the halfway mark of the 2001 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships, which are being held this weekend at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans.
The Lady Toppers currently have seven points through the events of Saturday afternoon, while the Hilltoppers have booked six points so far. Points are awarded to the top eight finishers in each event on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale. The top three finishers are also given all-conference honors.
The Lady Toppers got their first points of the meet in the 10,000-meter run, which was contested late Friday evening. In her final outdoor competition, senior Chaye Mathfield (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa/Pietermaritzburg Girls HS) turned in one of her finest performances on the Hill, earning the first all-Sun Belt citation of her career after finishing third in a personal-best time of 37:45.94, more than three full minutes faster than her previous top mark. In fact, Mathfield narrowly missed catching Arkansas State's Rebekah Christman for second, coming in less than a second behind Christman.
Western got an added boost in the 10,000, as junior Jennifer Hibbs (Owensboro, Ky./Daviess County HS) picked up one team point with her eighth-place finish. Like Mathfield, Hibbs turned in a personal-best time, completing the circuit in 41:45.23 to beat her old standard by more than 30 seconds.
On the men's side, freshman Enda Grandfield (Killorglin, Ireland/Killorglin HS) took sixth place in Friday night's 10,000 meters, finishing the race in 31:41.16. Classmate David Altmaier (Somerset, Ky./Pulaski County HS) just missed contributing to the Hilltoppers' point total, placing ninth in 32:51.14.
WKU did manage to notch three more team points, as freshman Matt Moore (Madisonville, Ky./University Heights Academy) claimed sixth place in the decathlon, which concluded Saturday afternoon. Moore struggled somewhat on day two, after setting new personal bests in all five of the first-day events. However, he did post the Hilltoppers' second-best mark of the season in the javelin throw with a toss of 156-8.
The Sun Belt Championships will continue late Saturday night and wrap up Sunday afternoon with more than 25 individual and relay titles still up for grabs. North Texas is the reigning champion on the men's side, while Middle Tennessee is defending the women's crown.
-- WKU --
