April 22, 2002
Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky track and field athletes were spread across the country this past weekend, competing in events at Vanderbilt, Kansas and Mt. San Antonio College in California.
At Mt. SAC, Enda Grandfield (So., Kerry, Ireland) placed 13th in the 10,000-meter run in a Sun Belt season best time of 30:25.38. Also at Mt. SAC, women's 5,000-meter runners Olga Cronin (Jr., Cork, Ireland) and Jill Shannon (Fr., Jordantown, Northern Ireland) notched personal bests. Cronin finished ninth in a SBC-season best time of 17:17.16. Shannon was 17th at 17:33.82.
At the Kansas Relays, Holly Wilder (Sr., London, Ky.) and Matt Moore (So., Madisonville, Ky.) competed in the heptathlon and decathlon, respectively, but neither were able to complete the event due to injury. But, before stopping, Wilder had personal bests in the high jump (5-5.25) and 100-meter hurdles (15.60).
The final day of competition at the Kansas Relays was cut short due to lightning and thunderstorms, which canceled the 200-meter dash in which Jonathon Brown (So., Morganfield, Ky.) was to compete. Before the meet was stopped, however, three other WKU men were able to complete their events. Raigo Toompuu (Fr., Haapsalu, Estonia) finished tenth in the shot put (50-0), Justin Miller (Jr., Campbellsville, Ky.) was sixth in the 400-meters (48.62) and Eigo Siimu (Fr., Viljandi, Estonia) broke his own school record in the javelin, breaking the 200-feet mark with a 202-1 for eighth place.
The remainder of the Western teams competed at the Vanderbilt Invitational Friday and Saturday. The men sixth with 57 points and the women eighth with 39.
Leading the men at Vanderbilt was freshman thrower Craig Morehead (Connersville, Ind.), who tallied 10 points with a third-place finish in the hammer (139-2), sixth in the shot put (39-10.50) and eighth in the discus (134-4). Hurdler Matt McClure (So., Louisville, Ky.) earned nine points, finishing sixth in the 110-hurdles (16.00) and third in the 400-hurdles (54.93). Nick Bacon (Fr., Murfreesboro, Tenn.) also had a good day, finishing fourth in the 800-meters (1:56.36) and sixth in the 1500-meters (4:07.64) for a total of eight points. Ryan Howell (Fr., Kirkwood, Mo.) was fourth in the 1500 meters with a personal best time of 4:06.88. Tim Postlethwait (Jr., Louisville, Ky.) placed fifth in the javelin with a personal best toss of 130-8.
Misty Hair (So., Liberty, Ky.) led the women with a sixth-place finish in the shot put (38-4.25) and a third in the hammer (133-2) for a total of nine points. Christy Green (Jr., Naperville, Ill.) placed third in the pole vault with a season-best jump of 9-6.25. Bonita Paul (So., Capetown, South Africa) was fourth in the 5,000-meters (18:30.78) and Aimee Wellerding (Fr., Louisville, Ky.) finished fifth in the 800-meters with a personal best time of 2:18.07.
The WKU men's and women's track teams will have their final warm up before the Sun Belt Conference Championships this Friday (April 26) at Louisville. The SBC meet is scheduled for May 10-12 in New Orleans.
-WKU-
