SE WOMEN SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND ALL SPORT CROWN

Southeast Missouri State University's women appeared to be in somewhat of a dangerous position Saturday entering the final event of the 17th annual All Sport Relays.

But that was only an illusion. The Otahkians really weren't in any trouble at all even though they led Missouri by just eight points going into the 4x400-meter relay.

The Otahkians cruised to victory in the 4x400 as they won their second straight team title in the All Sport Relays, hosted by Southeast at the Abe Stuber Track & Field Complex.

"The thing about track is you score points where you have good people no matter when the event is," said Southeast coach and meet director Joey Haines. "We have good people there (in the 4x400)."

Southeast scored 188 points to hold off Missouri (175) and Southern Illinois (163) in the nine-team women's field.

Missouri won the seven-team men's division with 203.5 points, ahead of SIU (199) and Southeast (130.5).

Mizzou also won the combined title (men's and women's scoring) with 378 points, ahead of SIU (362) and Southeast (318.5).

"It was a good meet. It was really competitive in both divisions and that's what it's all about," Haines said. "I thought we had a lot of really good performances by both our women and men."

The Otahkians were certainly impressive, winning five events Saturday to go with the four they had captured Friday.

Southeast's women won three relay races contested Saturday, giving the Otahkians five relay victories during the meet.

The meet-clinching 4x400 team, which clocked 3 minutes 49.24 seconds, consisted of Kim Stewart, Heather Keltner, Tammy Wenkel and Yvonne Hente.

Other relay teams prevailing Saturday were the 4x100 squad of Keltner, Hente, Heather Denihan and Natalie Talley (46.88); and the sprint medley group of Talley, Hente, Keltner and Wenkel (3:57.11).

Hente, a senior, ran on all five winning relay teams. Keltner, a freshman, was on four of those squads while sophomore Wenkel and freshman Talley both competed on three.

"We're very excited to win the meet," said Hente. "We have a lot of good athletes, so we have some really good relay teams.

"We weren't really pushed in a lot of the events so some of the times weren't our best. But we did enough. And it was cold, so that had something to do with it."

Added a laughing Hente, "Last weekend at Alabama it was in the 80s. Now it's so cold. So it's hard to get loose and you really want to make sure you don't pull anything."

Said Keltner, "Our team had a really good meet. I'm a freshman so this is my first (All Sport) relays and it's nice to win."

Other winners for the Otahkians Saturday were Denihan in the long jump (19-3 1/4) and Lutricia Purham in the shot put (45-10). Purham, a freshman, had won the discus Friday.

The Otahkians had several other place-winners, including thirds by Erin McCuan in the high jump (5-0) and Sara Kaznica in the pole vault (8-0).

Placing fourth were Jennifer Phillips in the shot put (39-6) along with the 4x800 (9:51.02) and 4x1600 (21:52.98) relay teams.

Also on the women's side, former Cape Central High standout Elizabeth Kunz of Missouri was seventh in the high jump (5-0).

Southeast's men had two winners Saturday as Jon Riley captured the triple jump (50-11) and Bryan Alfultis claimed the discus (169-1). Both thus became double winners as Riley had won the long jump and Alfultis the shot put during Friday's action.

Randy Johnson was denied a fourth consecutive title in the javelin as he finished second behind Missouri All-American Darin File.

File unleashed an impressive toss of 228-5 on his first attempt and that easily stood up as the winner. Johnson's top throw was 204-11, well off his career-best of 222-4.

"He (File) is really good and he had a great throw," said Johnson. "I've been doing a lot of weight work so I'm not throwing like I can, but hopefully that will pay off later in the season."

Former Cape Central High star Jim Fox was second in the pole vault for Southeast with the same 15-6 height as champion Justin Calane of Missouri. Fox, a state pole vault champion as a Central senior, is a freshman who started his career as a red-shirt at Tennessee before transferring.

Southeast's Jaret Wili was third in the pole vault (15-0) while the Indians' 4x100 relay team also placed third (42.52).

Finishing fourth for the Indians was Brock Alspaugh in the 1500 (4:12.0) while fifth were Alfultis in the javelin (178-6) and Jim Rhea in the discus (135-4).