Southeast Missouri State men's track and field team wins conference title

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State senior Kevin Farley released the shot put and sent his second throw sailing wide right of the sector Saturday morning.

His right elbow started throbbing. A sporadically reoccurring nerve pain returned during the most important meet of the indoor track and field season.

"If I keep straight on and do it correctly, it's not so bad," Farley said. "If I start shanking them off over here, instead of using my shoulder more I'm using more my elbow. The nerve back there, or whatever it is, just doesn't like it."

His elbow started aching anytime he bent it, but despite the pain, Farley found a way to produce his best throws of the day on his next two throws. He threw the shot 17.52 and 17.54 meters on his next two throws -- both better than any competitor's throw Saturday during the final day of the Ohio Valley Conference Track and Field Championships in Charleston, Illinois.

"Kevin did what he had to do to get the win today," Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker said.

In addition to the shot put win, Farley won the weight throw Friday to help lead the Redhawks to the men's team title.

"My two wins are pretty important," Farley said. "I didn't do as well as I want, but I did what I came to do. That's what this meet is about."

Chris Navarro also captured two men's individual titles for Southeast. He won the heptathlon and the 60-meter hurdles.

Other Southeast winners included Blake Smith, who won the 60-meter dash with a new OVC championship record time of 6.65, and Reggie Miller in the triple jump.

Southeast's men's team scored 181 points while runner-up Eastern Illinois scored 169.5 points. Eastern Illinois countered by winning the women's team title with 132.5 points while the Redhawks took third with 98 1/2 points.

Crumpecker received OVC Co-Men's Coach of the Year honors, which he shared with Eastern Illinois coach Tom Akers. Farley shared OVC Co-Field Athlete of the Year with Laderrick Ward of SIU-Edwardsville. Southeast Missouri's Kayla Gutierrez won OVC Field Athlete of the Year outright.

Gutierrez won the weight and shot put competitions at the meet. Also picking up two wins for the Southeast women was Ayonna Cartwright in the 60 meters and 200 meters.

Cartwright dominated the 60-meter race in 7.42 seconds. She finished a full stride ahead of the competition as the runner-up finished 0.13 seconds behind her.

"It's been better, but once I got in my drive phase and to my top speed, I knew I had it," Cartwright said.

The men's team title remained in doubt until near the end of Saturday's meet.

Southeast trailed by 0.5 points with just the pole vault and the 1,600-meter relay remaining, but the pole vaulters clinched victory by finishing one-two-three.

"I wasn't too worried about it," said Southeast junior pole vaulter Christian Locke. "I was just worried about having fun and jumping."

Locke won the pole vault by clearing 5 meters. Freshman Tyler Jourdan set a new personal record by clearing 4.85 meters for second place, and Duncan Ross completed the sweep taking third and clearing 4.75 meters.

The trio compensated after a potentially perilous start when their fourth teammate failed to clear the opening height.

"I did it outdoor last year. We all do it," Locke said of his teammate's no-height. "We just got to pick each other up."

From Farley's elbow to start Saturday through the pole vault at the end, the Redhawks showed their determination to capture a second consecutive OVC men's indoor team championship. Maybe no one showed that drive more than Navarro.

He finished the 1,000 meters, the seventh event of the heptathlon, at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Less than two hours later, he returned to the track for the 60-meter hurdle final.

Navarro won the hurdle race, which is the first time he's won the heptathlon and 60-meter hurdles in the same meet. When he grabbed a cup of water after the hurdles, his right hand shook from exhaustion.

"It's just really killer to try to run (hurdles) after the thousand," Navarro said. "That really takes it out of your legs."

He stayed strong enough in the hurdles to run 8.07 seconds, which broke the school record. That's after he broke the OVC meet record by scoring 4,935 points in the heptathlon Friday and Saturday.

"We had a lot of people banged up and sucking it up and doing what they had to do to get the job done," Crumpecker said.