Southeast Missouri State track and field team sweeps OVC Outdoor Championships

The Southeast Missouri State men's and women's track and field teams won the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships on Saturday.

The Southeast men scored 207 points to defeat second-place Eastern Illinois, which scored 194 1/2.

The Southeast women scored 141 points to win. Austin Peay followed in second with 133 1/2.

"I'm just proud of everybody," Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker said. "This is what you start working for all the way back when we started practice the first week of school. We've been at this for 10 months now. This is what everyone's been working for, and to have it all come together is just a great moment and I'm just proud of everybody involved."

The men's team won for the first time since 2008; the women's last title came in 2006 when Southeast swept the championships.

Eastern Illinois had won the men's and women's OVC outdoor championships the past five years.

The Redhawks won eight events at the meet.

Kevin Farley won the hammer throw, breaking a school record and the OVC record with his throw of 206 feet, 9 inches.

"That was one of his goals coming in to try to come out and break the conference record and the school record at the same time," Crumpecker said. "I was just happy for him because he right now has an injury to his chest and shoulder that's really keeping him from throwing the shot put and discus like he's capable of, so right now he's been concentrating on the hammer, trying to get it going, and it was good to see him get one out that far."

Southeast sophomore Kayla Gutierrez, the OVC Female Field Athlete of the Year, won the discus with a throw of 162-11 and Sarah Hall finished second (146-05). Gutierrez also was second in the hammer throw with a toss of 190-2.

Bethany Pfeiffer's throw of 144-9 won the javelin competition.

Courtney Gapelu won the shot put with a throw of 49-10 while Hall's throw of 46-11 3/4 was good for third.

On the men's side, Shon Kyle and Farley took the top two spots in the shot put with throws of 55-11 1/4 and 53-10 1/4, respectively.

Kyle also won the discus with a throw of 177-3 while Jason Walker's throw of 163-8 put him in third place.

Brian Grote won the javelin with a throw of 201-0 and Chris Navarro was second.

Navarro and Chris Martin claimed first and second place in the decathlon.

Martin, a Central graduate and OVC Freshman of the Year, won the triple jump with a jump of 51-2 3/4.

Blake Carter took second in the long jump with a leap of 24-9 3/4 and Jackson graduate Blake Smith took third in 24-9 1/4. Smith was second in the 100 meters in 10.45 seconds.

Reggie Miller's jump of 6-8 3/4 in the high jump was good for third place.

Navarro and Mike Peters finished second and third, respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles. Peters also was third in the 400-meter hurdles in 53.0.

Macy Ritter finished second in the high jump with a height of 5-5 and placed third in the heptathlon with 4,506 points.

Both the men's and women's 400 relay teams took second place. The men's team of Carter, Kendrick Farr, Alexander Anderson and Smith finished in 41.28, while the women's squad of Ayonna Cartwright, Prenecia Ponds, Chelsea Miller and Cheyenne Tunti clocked 46.90.

Ponds and Cartwright also took third and fourth, respectively, in the 100.

Crumpecker was named the OVC Men's Coach of the Year.