Southeast track and field Knippen leads Redhawks in meet

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Led by Brian Knippen's winning shot put, Southeast Missouri State's track and field teams had numerous strong performances during Saturday's Mississippi State Invitational.

Knippen's distance of 58 feet, 2 1/2 inches is the third-best in school history. He also cracked Southeast's all-time top-10 list in the discus by placing second with 163-8.

Southeast's other victory was by Brian Whitehead in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9 minutes, 30.70 seconds.

Also second for the Southeast men were Miles Smith in the 400 (46.05), Chaz Brown in the 800 (1:52.89) and Alonzo Nelson in the 400 hurdles (52.86).

Donniece Parrish in the 200 (24.38, top-10 all-time), Colleen Burke in the 5,000 (18:27.38) and Nichole Portell in the shot put (43-5 3/4) all were second for the Southeast women.

Placing third were Jason Theodorakos in the javelin (171-1), Kevin McNab in the 3,000 steeplechase (9:37.43), Kathy Coleman in the 100 hurdles (14.66), Michele Jett in the pole vault (11-0) and the women's 400 relay team of Nyisha Porter, Coleman, LaQuita Andrews and Parrish (46.51).

Southeast had a host of athletes place fourth through six, including Jackson High School product Lindsay Meyr, who was sixth in both the long jump and javelin.

"We had some very good performances," Southeast coach Joey Haines said. "Brian Knippen's shot put was outstanding."