Southeast men, women sweep Samford, Murray St.

Southeast Missouri State University men's and women's track teams easily outdistanced Samford and Murray State in an indoor meet Saturday at the Student Recreation Center.

Southeast's men scored 71 points to 39 for Samford and 36 for Murray State, while the women, winners of 11 of their 15 events, scored 89 to Samford's 37 and Murray State's 32.

"Overall, as a team, we performed pretty well," senior hurdler and sprinter Glenn Haley said. "This meet was good as far as us coming out and being able to run in front of our home crowd and helping build confidence for the conference meet."

The Ohio Valley Conference indoor championships begin Feb. 22 at Eastern Illinois University.

A triple event winner

Southeast's LaQuita And-rews was the only triple winner. She won in the 55 meters, the 200 and as a member of the 1,600relay team.

Southeast coach Joey Haines praised the redshirt freshman's performance.

"She sat out all of last year with a stress fracture, so we're very pleased with the way she has come along," Haines said. "She's just getting better and better each meet."

On the men's side, senior Jason Campbell had a record performance, tying the Recreation Center mark of 49.9 for the 400.

"I kind of asked coach, out of the blue, what the record was because I ran a pretty good time last week and I wanted to try to shoot for it," Campbell said. "I was going after it and I tied it, so I can't be disapointed with that."

The Perryville High School trio of sprinter Shawn Statler, miler Jared Tanz and middle distance runner Tyson Brown accounted for 18 1/4 points of the men's total.

Tanz won the mile and Tyson Brown finished a tenth of a second behind the 600 winner, Southeast freshman Chaz Brown. Tyson Brown also competed on the winning 1600 relay team.

Statler won the 55 meters, placed second in the long jump and fourth in the 200 meters. His win in the 55 meters was inspired by what he saw in an earlier race.

In a preliminary heat for the 55, Murray State sprinter Jonathan Dykes, well ahead of Southeast's defending OVC 60-meter champion Emmanuel Opoku, glanced back and broke into a derisive grin as he broke the tape ahead of Opoku.

"That kind of upset me a little bit," Statler said, "and got me fired up."

llewis@semissourian.com

(573) 335-6611, extension 171