SOUTHEAST PUNTER NAMED TO CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM

Southeast Missouri State University's football team, which finished seventh in the eight-team Ohio Valley Conference, had only one player named to the All-OVC first team that was released Tuesday.

Jason Witczak, a senior punter who played just one season with the Indians after transferring from Marshall, earned first-team honors as voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Witczak led the OVC in punting with an average of 41.1 yards per kick.

The Indians had three players named to the all-conference second team: senior safety Joe Williams, junior linebacker Corey Mathis and junior return man Curtis Cooper.

Williams had a school-record 147 tackles this season, which led the OVC and ranked second nationally in the most recent NCAA Division I-AA statistics.

Mathis, a junior-college transfer, was third in the OVC in both quarterback sacks and tackles for loss, with seven and 19, respectively. His 97 tackles ranked ninth in the conference.

Cooper, also a juco transfer, was one of the most exciting returners in the OVC. He led the league in kickoff returns with an average of 23.8 yards and he was fourth in punt returns with an average of 10.54 yards. Cooper ranked third in the OVC in all-purpose running and also caught 30 passes.

Another Southeast player, senior wide receiver Leslie Weaver, earned honorable-mention honors after leading the Indians with 46 catches for 705 yards.

• Eastern Illinois sophomore quarterback Tony Romo, who tied an OVC record for touchdown passes and was second in Division I-AA in pass efficiency, and Tennessee Tech senior linebacker Chad Evitts, who ranked among the OVC's best in tackles and tackles for loss, received the league's top individual honors.

Romo was selected as the OVC Offensive Player of the Year, while Evitts was chosen as the OVC Defensive Player of the Year. Western Kentucky head coach Jack Harbaugh earned the league's Coach of the Year award after guiding the Hilltoppers to the OVC championship.

Romo completed 164-of-278 passes for 2,583 yards and 27 TD's in his first year as a starter for the Panthers, who went 8-3 this year after a 2-10 season in 1999. His passing yardage total was the 8th-best in OVC history and the 27 TD's matched the league mark set by Murray State's Justin Fuente a year ago.

Evitts led the OVC with 24 tackles for loss and was fifth in the conference with 118 total tackles. He also recorded two quarterback sacks, 18 quarterback hurries, five forced fumbles, one interception, three pass breakups and a blocked kick.

Harbaugh earned OVC Coach of the Year honors for the first time after guiding Western Kentucky to a 10-1 overall record and the OVC championship with a perfect 7-0 mark. The 10 victories is the most for the Hilltoppers in the regular season since 1973 and they are ranked 6th in the latest I-AA poll.

* Eastern Illinois had six players selected to the All-OVC first team, while Western Kentucky and Tennessee Tech both had five.

A complete list of the all-conference squads appears in Scoreboard in Page 2B.