OTAHKS SLOSH TO ALL SPORT RELAYS LEAD; MARQUETTE TAKES MEN'S LEAD

Rain might have put an overall damper on the 1997 ALL SPORT Relays Friday, but not even horrible weather could slow down many of the teams on the opening day of the 16th annual track and field event.

Host Southeast Missouri State Universitys women and Marquettes men were the first-day team leaders during competition at the Abe Stuber Track and Field Complex.

Action will resume today at 10 a.m., with the final event scheduled for 2:20 p.m."The weather impacts things a lot," said Southeast coach Joey Haines, who also serves as meet director. "But the tough people still run good regardless of the weather."Based on first-day performances, Marquette and Southeast were among the tougher folks.

Southeast's Otahkians, one of the favorites for the women's team title, lived up to their pre-meet billing by garnering 59 points in the six scored events that were held Friday.

Marquette is second out of the 12 womens teams with 49 points. Tennessee-Chattanooga (38), Illinois State (36) and Southern Illinois (28) round out the top five.

Marquette totaled 66 points in Fridays seven scored events to lead the way among the 11 men's teams.

Western Kentucky's men are second with 50, followed by Southern Illinois (47), Tennessee-Chattanooga (32) and Southeast (29).There will also be an overall team trophy awarded, based on the combined points scored by a school's men's and women's squads. Marquette leads the race in that department with 115 points, followed by Southeast (88), Southern Illinois (75), Western Kentucky (71) and Tennessee-Chattanooga (70).Haines' program entered the meet intent on winning the women's and overall titles."I'm really happy with what we did. We handled the rain well," he said. "We're doing about as well as we'd hoped. The girls are doing real well. They're right on schedule. The guys are helping out."We're hoping the women can win and the men can do enough (in order for Southeast to win the overall title). The key is what other schools do as a whole. Marquette had a really good day combined and they're looking good."There will be nine scored events today for both the men and women so titles are still up for grabs."We have to have a big day from some of the guys in order to give us a good chance," Haines said.

Senior standout Shannon O'Dell was one of the leaders for the Otahkians Friday. She won the 100-meter hurdles (14.44 seconds), was second in the 400 hurdles (1:03.45) and ran the first leg on Southeast's 4x

200 relay team that cruised to victory (1:38.95).