By Jim Fryar

jfryar@joplinglobe.com

There’s a lofty prize within reach of the Missouri Southern women’s track and field team.

The Lions have a chance to win a rare Triple Crown in MIAA competition this weekend. After earning conference titles in cross country and indoor track, Southern will bid for the final leg of the Triple Crown during the outdoor track championships at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville.

The meet begins today, with most of the track finals scheduled for Sunday.

But the one event that has already been completed gave defending champion Central Missouri a formidable lead. The Jennies scored 23 points in the heptathlon, held last weekend in Hays, Kan. Southern was blanked in the event.

“This group of young ladies is intent on trying to make this Triple Crown happen,” said Patty Vavra, Southern women’s coach. “It would be quite a feat to pull it off, but they believe they can do it. ... I know they have a great focus in that direction.”

Missouri Southern returns 15 individuals who placed in the 2007 outdoor championships, when the Lions finished fourth in the team standings. Sophomore distance ace Kimi Shank and senior middle-distance runner Alison Walker missed that meet because of injuries.

There’s no question the Lions will accumulate high point totals in the throwing events and the distance races. They enter the MIAA meet with favorites in five events.

But points remain scarce for Southern in the sprints and the long, high and triple jumps.

“It’s a different meet than indoors,” Vavra said, “with different events and scoring down to eight places. The depth factor would probably favor a team with a lot of individuals (like Central Missouri).”

Teams are allowed three entries in each of the meet’s 22 events. They also get five wild-card entries, allowing them to stack events of particular depth. The Lions will use all five wild-cards in the throws: two in the hammer, two in the discus and one in the shot put.

On paper, the Lions should score about 60 points in the four throwing events, including the javelin.

“In the hammer, we have five people ranked in the top six,” Vavra said. “In the discus, (throws coach) Jamie (Tallman) feels like it’s wide open enough that we’re also entering five. Our throwers are so closely matched that we’re not sure which ones will perform the best on any given day.”

Senior Jessica Selby-Tallman is the defending conference champion in both the shot put and hammer. She’s both the conference and Division II national leader in both events this spring.