Southeast men lead OVC meet after first day

The Southeast Missouri State men's track and field team jumped out to the lead after the opening day of the Ohio Valley Conference indoor meet.

Southeast scored 48 points in five finals contested Friday at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn.

Defending champion Eastern Illinois is second with 37 points, with Eastern Kentucky (32) third among six men's squads.

Southeast is last in the nine-team women's field with 9 1/2 points. Murray State leads with 32 1/2 points, while defending champion Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State both have 32 points.

Southeast's men captured two titles Friday.

Senior John Berry won the long jump with a career-best distance of 25 feet, 1 3/4 inches.

Although Berry has had an impressive career, this was his first OVC championship.

"John had been either second or third six times," Southeast coach Joey Haines said. "To finally win, we're real excited for him. And it moves him up the NCAA [qualifying] list pretty good."

Sophomore Brandon Colbert, who on Thursday was voted the OVC indoor male field athlete of the year, won the shot put (55-6 1/2).

Southeast captured the top four spots in the shot put, with Jackson High School graduate Andy Glass, a junior, second (50-2 3/4), freshman Josh Uchtman third (47-3 1/2) and senior Andy Croxford fourth (46-9 1/2).

The Redhawks had four of the top eight in the long jump, with sophomore Antoine Smith fifth (23-3 1/4), Central High School product Tyler Terry, a freshman, seventh (22-7 1/4) and Ryan Criglar eighth (22-6 1/2).

But Criglar, a freshman from Malden who would have been favored to place high in the short sprints, suffered a hamstring injury during the long jump and likely won't be able to run when the meet concludes today.

"That was a blow to us," Haines said.

Junior Brandon Karcher was fourth in the 5,000 meters (15:05.66), while Southeast's distance medley relay team of freshman Paul Stemmerman, senior Tom Kinder, senior Mark McNamara and sophomore Jamie Lee was fourth (10:32.24).

Junior Chris Gill had the fastest time in the preliminaries of both the 200 (21.93) and 400 (49.32), with Chris Poindexter second in the 400 (49.74).

Southeast All-American runner Miles Smith, the OVC indoor track athlete of the year who would have been the prohibitive favorite in the 400, is not competing this weekend.

Haines said Smith, who will be among the favorites at the NCAA meet and is a legitimate Olympic hopeful, was suffering from "general soreness. We just couldn't afford to take a chance with Miles. We felt like we had the people in his areas to step up, and they did."

Haines said he anticipates a down-to-the-wire battle today for the men's championship between the Redhawks, Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky.

"We did what we could do. We really couldn't have done much better. We had a lot of good things happen," Haines said. "It's going to be really close between those three teams, just like I said going in."

Haines said Southeast's women did not have nearly as successful a first day as the men.

Junior Funtasia Clark was third in the high jump (5-4 1/4), freshman Brandi Gervais placed sixth in the 5,000 (18:23.19) and junior Whitney Thomas had the top time in the preliminaries in the 55 hurdles (8.17).

"We'll still do some good things with the women. We won't finish last, like we are now," Haines said. "But it will be hard to get in the top two or three."

-- From staff reports