Smith finishes 14th in long jump at NCAA Indoor Championships

Southeast Missouri State sophomore Blake Smith placed 14th at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday in Albuquerque, N.M.

Smith's best jump of the competition was 23 feet, 5 1/2-inches. Smith, a Class 4 state long jump champion from Jackson High School, had qualified for the national meet with a jump of 25 4 1/2, which won the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships.

Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas won the NCAA title with a leap of 27-6 1/3.

Tennis

Southeast won its Ohio Valley Conference opener for the first time since the 2005-2006 season with a 4-3 defeat of Belmont in Nashville, Tenn.

Valeriia Kashina won the No. 1 singles match 6-3, 6-4.

Valeriia Nagovitcina picked up the win in the No. 2 spot in three sets. She lost the first set 3-6, but rallied with 6-4, 6-2 victories.

Melissa Martin won 6-2, 6-4 for her fifth straight win.

Ekaterina Donetckova and Kashina won 8-5 in the No. 1 doubles match, while Heather Robinson and Martin claimed an 8-1 win in the No. 2 spot.

Softball

The Southeast (5-8) softball team split a doubleheader against the University of Missouri-St. Louis (8-2) at the Southeast Softball Complex on Saturday.

In the first game, Southeast picked up a 5-4 win in eight innings despite being outhit 8-3.

Southeast's KC Saxe was placed on second base to comply with a tie-breaker rule in the bottom of the eighth. She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Nicole Deering before Savannah Carpenter and Lindsey Patterson were intentionally walked to load the bases.

Haylee Krack drew a walk to score Saxe for the win. It was one of two RBIs for Krack, who had a double.

UMSL took a 4-0 lead after the first inning before Southeast picked up four of its own in the bottom of the third to tie the game.

Hannah Durham (2-1) picked up the win in 7 2/3 innings of relief. She allowed four hits and had seven strikeouts.

Southeast lost 6-4 in the second game despite outhitting UMSL 8-6.

UMSL took a 3-0 lead in the third inning on a two-run homer by Brianna Butler.

The Redhawks answered with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning to cut the deficit to one, but continued to play catchup throughout the game.

UMSL and Southeast each picked up a run in the sixth. The Tritons added two in the seventh, while Southeast picked up one.

Savannah Carpenter, Leah Duffe and Jamie Woodworth all had two hits apiece for Southeast. Carpenter's hits included a double.

Aubrey Denno (2-4) took the loss. She allowed four runs on six hits in 7 1/3 innings of work. She had seven strikeouts and walked one batter.

Basketball

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team will not compete in a postseason tournament, the university announced Friday.

Southeast sports information director Jeff Honza said Southeast had not received an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational as of Friday, and would not be waiting on a decision with spring break starting.

-- From staff reports