KELTNER TRACKS DOWN HONOR

Southeast Missouri State University's Heather Keltner has added yet another honor to her already packed athletic resume.

For the second straight year, the senior sprinter has been named the Ohio Valley Conference Female Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year.

Keltner earned the award by winning both the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes at the OVC Championships held over the weekend in Murray, Ky. She also ran legs on the second place 400-meter relay team and the third place 1600-meter relay team.

"It's a very nice honor for Heather, who has had a tremendous career for us," said Southeast coach Joey Haines.

Keltner's win in the 400 was her fourth consecutive OVC outdoor title in the event. She also claimed three of four OVC indoor 400 titles during her four-year career at Southeast.

In addition, Keltner won two outdoor 200 titles, one indoor 200 crown, ran on three OVC 400 relay championship teams (including the squad that set an OVC record in 2000) and two OVC championship 1600 relay teams.

And Keltner's career is not quite over yet. She has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division I Championships in the 400, although she will likely need to drop her time some in the last couple of meets of the season in order to make the NCAA field.

Thomas nabs OVC honor

Southeast baseball player Tommy Thomas has been named the OVC Co-Pitcher of the Week, sharing the honor with Austin Peay's Mike Weel.

Thomas, a senior right-hander, allowed five hits while striking out nine in seven innings during the Indians' 11-0 rout of Tennessee Tech Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Indians will try to keep their winning streak going and also continue to build on their power rating for a potential at-large NCAA berth when they visit Memphis today for a 2 p.m. non-conference doubleheader.

The 33-14 Indians have won eight straight games. At 14-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play, they are locked into second place in the eight-team league and will be the No. 2 seed for the OVC Tournament May 16-19 in Paducah, Ky.

The OVC tourney winner gains the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. But Southeast coach Mark Hogan is hopeful that, if the Indians continue their strong play, they will at least have an outside chance of earning an at-large NCAA bid if they fail to capture the OVC tourney.

"Of course our goal is to win the (OVC) tournament," said Hogan. "But our RPI (ratings percentage index) is high enough that I think we'd be under consideration (for an at-large NCAA berth). We just have to keep playing like we have been."

Memphis is 28-20 overall and 12-12 in Conference USA. The Tigers and Indians split a two-game series in Cape Girardeau last month, Southeast winning 14-14 and Memphis prevailing 13-5.

After today's action, Southeast will close out the regular season this weekend with a three-game series at Eastern Illinois, which has clinched the OVC title with a 17-0 record.

Kisaka all-tourney

Emmy Kisaka was the lone Southeast softball player named to the OVC All-Tournament team over the weekend.

Kisaka led the Otahkians in hitting at the tourney in Cookeville, Tenn., going 4-for-8 (.500).

Southeast went just 1-2 in the tournament, which was won by host and OVC regular-season champion Tennessee Tech. Tech will face the MEAC winner in a three-game series later this week for the right to represent the OVC in the NCAA Tournament.