Another day, another title
Monday, May 4 2009 - OVC ChampionshipsDan Cusack / Staff Reporter
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Both teams finished in first place at the OVC Outdoor Championships Saturday in Richmond, Ky. The teams were coming off a sweep in the Indoor Championships earlier this year.
The men's team trailed after the first day by 11 points but performed strong Saturday to finish with 227 points, 86 points ahead of Eastern Kentucky, which finished in second place.
Red-shirt freshman sprinter Zye Boey was named the Male Athlete of the Championship for winning the 100 and 200-meter dash.
His time of 10.30 seconds in the 100-meter was good enough for first in the conference, while he won the 200 with a time of 21.09.
Boey ran a 10.25 in the qualifying event for the 100-meter Friday, which was one-tenth of a second off the conference record and seventh fastest in the country so far this season.
Junior Ian Winston won two events, but it was not easy for him. In the triple jump, Winston and freshman Tyler Carter tied for first place with a mark of 46 feet, but Winston won the individual title because his second jump was longer.
In the high jump, both Winston and Eastern junior Kris Gehrke cleared 6 feet, 4 inches, but Winston won because he had fewer missed attempts.
"It made me push myself harder having to jump against those guys," Winston said. "I knew I had to have a good jump, so I just stayed the course and went for it."
Winston was one of the five track and field athletes to qualify for regionals. He said as a team, Eastern did an awesome job and accomplished the goal it had set out to achieve from the beginning of the season.
The women's team also trailed entering the final day of competition but had a strong performance the final day to win the team title.
Like Boey, senior sprinter Shawana Smith won the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Smith ran the fifth fastest time in Eastern history in the 100-meters with an 11.8 second run and finished the 200-meter with a time of 24.17.
Junior hurdler Chandra Golden won two events, including the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdle races.
Her time in the 400 hurdles - 1:01.49 - was the fastest in school history.
For the men's hurdles, Gehrke won the event with a time of 52.09 seconds. The Panthers finished 1-2-3-4 in the event, with Gehrke being followed by sophomore Chad Aubin, junior Pat Tortorici and sophomore Preston Smith.
Senior Brad Butler earned a spot in the NCAA Regional for the 10,000-meter run after winning the event Friday with a time of 32:06.54.
Senior Nicole Walcott and Winston earned spots in the regional Friday after each won the high jump competition.
Other winners for the Panthers over the weekend included sophomore Joe Noonan in the pole vault, and the men's and women's 4x400 and 4x100 relay teams.
Noonan said the conditions were not ideal because it was raining and there was a headwind.
"We knew we needed to get height to get our team the points," Noonan said. "It was hard to grip the pole vault. But we did short runs and tried to get the height."
He said performing in this weather would help him in regionals because he will be able to deal with any weather.
Eastern coach Tom Akers was named OVC Coach of the Year for the outdoor season. He was named coach of the year during the indoor season as well.
Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or dscusack@eiu.edu.