SWEEPING THE TRACK: OTAHKS CAP PERFECT SEASON AT OVC OUTDOOR MEET

Southeast Missouri State University's reclaiming of the Ohio Valley Conference outdoor track & field championship wasn't nearly as close as coach Joey Haines had predicted.

The Otahkians basically cruised to the title last weekend in Murfreesboro, Tenn., scoring 136 points and winning by 25 points over host Middle Tennessee. Eastern Illinois was another point back in the 10-team field.

Southeast is thus back on top of the OVC's outdoor scene. The Otahkians had won two straight outdoor titles before falling a bit short last season.

And the Otahkians also made it a clean sweep of OVC track & field this school year as they had won the league's indoor title in February.

"It's been a very good year for our women's track program," said Haines. "It says a lot about the kind of athletes and coaches we have in our program."

Haines said the Otahkians basically did everything he thought they could do in winning last weekend's meet that he expected to be much, much closer.

"You always sit down and figure up the (predicted) score about a week before the meet, and you always figure it up with your team winning," he said. "But every time you figure it up after that, the score gets closer and closer. Then, in fact, Friday night after the prelims, when I figured it up, I didn't know if we'd win it.

"But it turned out pretty much exactly like I had figured up the first time. We ended up with just about the number of points I had us getting. We had a lot of super performances."

According to Haines, following up the OVC indoor title with the outdoor crown is an extremely difficult feat because athletes and coaches alike must battle a natural tendency to become satisfied.

"When you win the indoor, it's easy to say we're already OVC champions, we've been practicing since September, it's only February now, and there's still three months left in the season," said Haines. "Athletes and coaches have to be really motivated to push through all that and it's a real credit to these ladies for the way they've worked."

In addition to winning the team title, the Otahkians also garnered the major individual awards from the meet. Standouts Heather Keltner and Lutricia Purham were named co-athletes of the year for OVC outdoor track while Haines was named coach of the year, an honor he also received during the indoor season.

Keltner, a junior who has never lost an OVC 400-meter race, captured her sixth straight 400 title. She also finished second in the 200, ran on the winning 4x100 relay team that set an OVC record and was on the second-place 4x400 relay squad.

Purham, a junior, won her fourth OVC shot put title and also captured the discus crown.

"Heather scored 22 points and Lutricia 20," Haines said. "A coach usually nominates one person (for athlete of the year), but I said I really can't separate the two. I said I'm going to nominate both, and if they (the other coaches) can't vote for both, don't vote for either one

"It's great the way it turned out. Heather and Lutricia have both been tremendous and they're very deserving to share the honor."

As for Haines nabbing coach of the year accolades, he said it's a nice honor for the entire program and he had special praise for his two full-time assistant coaches, Eric Crumpecker and Yvonne Hente. Crumpecker works with the field-events athletes while Hente, a former Southeast standout, works with the sprinters.

"They've both done a super job," said Haines. "They're a big part of the success we've had."

Haines took pride in the Otahkians' 4x100 relay team of Keltner, Natalie Talley, Shauna Birge and Kim Stewart breaking the OVC record with a time of 45.40 seconds.

"That was a great accomplishment," he said.

While a host of competitors contributed to the team victory, Haines had special praise for the performance of distance runner Amy Arteme, a Kelly High product who scored 18 points by finishing second in the 5,000, third in the 10,000 and fifth in the 3,000.

"Amy had a tremendous meet," Haines said. "She ran 18,000 meters in less than 24 hours, which is really something. She ran the 10,000 Friday afternoon and it was really, really hot. She came back Saturday at high noon and ran the 5,000, then in the afternoon she ran the 3,000, and it was hot the whole time.

"The girl who beat Amy in the 5,000 was fresh. Amy would have won the 5,000 if she hadn't run the 10,000 the day before, but that's the sacrifice she made for the team."

Another local product who had an impressive meet was freshman Courtney Haman of Cape Central, who finished a close second in the javelin and took seventh in the high jump.

"When we recruited Courtney, we had the javelin in mind," said Haines. "We knew she had been an outstanding softball player and she's a good athlete. She's really got a lot of potential."

Joining Keltner on the 4x400 relay team that finished second were Talley, Stewart and Hannah Stuckenschneider.

The Otahkians received third-place performances from Birge in both the 100 and 200; Stuckenschneider in the 400; and Kim Demers in the 400 hurdles. Finishing fourth were Talley in the 100 and Becky Shull in the javelin while Stewart was fifth in the 400.

Another local freshman, Jackson's Jennifer Brown, aided the cause with seventh-place finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000.

On the men's side, Southeast finished short of its goal of a third-place performance as the Indians wound up fifth, but they came within five points of nabbing third.

The Indians got first-place efforts from Brandon Myer in the shot put and Collin Sheridan in the pole vault. Myer was also second in the discus while Ste. Genevieve product Chris Donze was second in the long jump and Jeremy Benberry placed second in the shot put.

Other top-five finishes for Southeast's men were turned in by Sheridan (fourth, javelin); Adrian Barnhill (fourth, high jump); Shelton Scott (fourth, triple jump); Donovan Collier (fifth, triple jump); Garvin Ambrose (fifth, high jump); Jason Campbell (fifth, 400); and the 4x400 relay (fifth).