EIU Sweeps OVC Track Titles

RICHMOND, Ky. - For the second time in the last three years Eastern Illinois completed the Ohio Valley Conference track and field sweep as the Panthers won the men's and women's 2009 outdoor titles on Saturday in Richmond.  With the wins, EIU won all four indoor and outdoor track championships this season.

EIU head coach Tom Akers was named the OVC Coach of the Year for both the men and women while freshman sprinter Zye Boey was named the Male Athlete of the Championships after winning the 100m and 200m titles.

EIU's men captured the title with 227 points after opening the first day of the meet in second place 11 points behind Southeast Missouri.  Eastern Kentucky was second with 141 points while SEMO dropped to third with 124 points.

The EIU women also rallied to win the title after trailing SEMO by 18.5 points after day one.  EIU finished with 188 points with the Redhawks dropping to second with 155 points.  Murray State was third with 91.5 points led by Female Athlete of the Championships Taylor Crawford.

After qualifying 22 athletes on Friday night for the sprint and hurdle event finals, those qualifying athletes paid off big for the Panthers as they won the 100m and 200m sprints and 400m hurdles for both men and women.   The women also added a title in the 100m hurdles.

Boey made his mark for Eastern Illinois winning the 100m and 200m sprints.  His tim ein the 100m was 10.30 after his qualifying time was one one-hundredeth of a second off the OVC record.  He won the 200m with a time of 21.09.  Teammate Brandon Jelks was second in the 100m at 10.86.

Shawana Smith also pulled off the double championship sprint sweep winning the 100m and 200m.  Her winning time of 11.80 in the 100m moved her up to fifth place on the EIU career top ten list.  She won the 200m with a time of 24.17.  Teammate Violet Nwordu was fourth in the 100m.

Hurdler Chandra Golden was a dual winner in the women's hurdles sweeping the 100m and 400m crowns.  She crossed the 100m with a time of 13.98.  Her winning mark of 1:01.49 in the 400m set the EIU school record.  Teammate Samantha Manto was second in the 400m hurdles at 1:03.07.

Kris Gehrke picked up the men's 400m hurdle title with a time of 52.09 which landed him ninth on the EIU career list.  Gehrke led a 1-2-3-4 EIU finish in the event with Chad Aubin, Pat Tortorici and Preston Smith following him.

EIU also domisteeplewebd the 110m hurdles with Matthew Fisher second at 14.99.  He was followed by Alex Migit, Gehrke and Aubin in third, fourth and fifth.

EIU also domisteeplewebd the finishes in the 800m run for men with Wes Sheldon placing second at 1:52.11.  Clint Coffey was fourth and Jason Springer 5th.  Springer also crossed third in the 1500m run.

Joe Noonan won the men's pole vault clearing 13'00.25".  He was followed by Luke Craven and Dorrian White.

The final men's individual championship was nailed down by Ian Winston in the triple jump.  He tied teammate Tyler Carter with both hitting 46 feet.  Winston won the title by virtue of his second best jump being longer than Carter's.

On the women's side Megan Gingerich turned in a top performance in the 800m run as she placed second to Murray State's Crawford.  Gingerich was in at 2:14.40 which lands in 7th place on the Panther charts.

The Panthers would go on to sweep the 4x100 and 4x400 relays for both men and women.