WENKEL PLACES 4th IN JUNIOR NATIONALS

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State University's Tammy Wenkel placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles Sunday during the USA Track & Field Junior National Championships at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

The top two finishers in the competition, which featured the nation's top high school athletes and college freshmen, qualified for the USA Junior National Team that will compete next month in the Pan American Junior Championships.

Despite not qualifying for the national squad, Wenkel turned in an impressive performance with a time of 60.52 seconds.

"Tammy did real well," said Southeast coach Joey Haines. "The girl who won the event was the top high school hurdler in the nation and the girl who finished second was an All-American at Vanderbilt this year.

"Since I've been at Southeast, Tammy is the highest finisher we've had at this meet."

Another Southeast athlete who competed in the meet, Shauna Birge, failed to qualify for the finals in the 100-meters.

"It was a great experience for both Tammy and Shauna," said Haines of his freshmen standouts on this year's Southeast team.