Otahkians claim OVC indoor title

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- After a three-year drought, the Southeast Missouri State University women's indoor track team claimed the Ohio Valley Conference Crown on Saturday at Eastern Illinois University.

The Otahkians ran away with the two-day competition, posting a team score of 170. Eastern Kentucky was second with 108 points.

"We won the outdoor last year, but we're a little bit better outdoors than indoors," Southeast coach Joey Haines said of the women's team. "Coming into the meet I usually sit down and try to figure what the score will be, but usually I'm way off because I let my heart determine them.

"I was kind of figuring we'd score 179 points, and we scored 170 points, which means we did real well. It was just a really good team effort from all the girls."

Southeast's men finished second, 80 points behind Eastern Illinois, which finished with 203 points.

"On the men's side we were really happy to get second," Haines said. "It was a really good effort on the men's part."

For the Otahkians, this was their first OVC crown since winning four straight from 1997-2000. Haines received women's coach of the year honors, and junior thrower Heather Jenkins shared the women's athlete of the meet honors.

Jenkins, a Cape Central graduate, was a double winner, winning the shot put and weight throw. Jenkins smashed her own OVC indoor record with a weight throw of 61-1 1/2 on Friday. On Saturday, Jenkins' shot put throw of 49-7 1/4 placed her ahead of teammate and runner-up Megan Youse's throw by two feet.

Southeast sophomore Lindsay Zeiler had a pair of wins, taking the mile run (5:00.93) and the 3,000 meters (10:01.43). Other winners for Southeast's women included Brooke Woodruff in the 800 (2:10.58) and Michelle Jett in the pole vault (10-11 3/4).

Jackson High School graduate Heather West finished second in the triple jump; Kaci Pilcher finished second in the mile; and the 1,600-meter relay team of Nyisha Porter, LaQuita Andrews, Brooke Woodruff and Juanita Coleman also finished second.

On the men's side, Jay Heddell won the shot put by nearly four feet with a throw of 57-4 1/4. Jordan Willi was the OVC champion in the pole vault at 16-0 1/2. David Herman won the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 8.16 seconds.

Collin Sheridan finished second for Southeast in the pole vault. Freshman Miles Smith finished second in the 400 (49.6), and Southeast's 1,600 relay team of Alonzo Nelson, Miles Smith, Jon Jefferson and Chaz Brown also finished second.