May 04, 2008 11:53 pm
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From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
MARYVILLE, Mo. — “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”
That’s the way Missouri Southern’s women end their team meetings in track and field. With their performance Sunday, the Lions proved their slogan isn’t just empty words.
Southern swept to the MIAA outdoor championship at Northwest Missouri State, winning the conference Triple Crown for cross country and indoor and outdoor track. Both the outdoor title and the Triple Crown were school firsts.
“They’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” said Patty Vavra, women’s track coach. “They’ve been so focused and they looked ahead to this. They just would not be denied.
“Sometimes you can say you want to do something, but this goes way beyond just saying it. ... They put in the long hours, the hard work.”
Obviously, the Lions meant it when they said they wanted to be Triple Crown winners.
Southern’s women scored 193 points to 152 1/2 for defending champion Central Missouri. Emporia State was third with 149 points and Pittsburg State placed fifth, behind Truman State, with 72 1/2 points.
In the men’s division, Central Missouri won another MIAA title with 174 1/2 points to 135 1/2 for runnerup Pittsburg State. Southern’s men finished fifth with 90 points.
The Southern women built a huge first-day lead and continued to ring up the points on Sunday. They added victories by Jessica Selby-Tallman (shot put), Kara Eckard (3,000-meter steeplechase) and Jill Weeks (javelin).
The throwing events were critical to the Lions’ success. They scored 80 points while sweeping the gold medals in the throws. The Southern women throwers outscored four entire MIAA teams.
In races of 800 meters and longer, the Lions added another 76 points.
“They’re dominating, but they’re humble,” Vavra said of her team. “A big part of their success has been that they genuinely care about each other as much as they do about themselves.”
Central Missouri closed the gap on the Lions by scoring 23 points in the 100-meter dash midway through Sunday’s program. Emporia State, also with big-point potential, threatened to turn the team race into a three-way battle.
“But there was a point in time where I didn’t even worry about it any more,” Vavra said. “These guys just go out and do it. They just took it on themselves. ... We had so many personal-best performances this weekend.”
Eckard, a junior from Warrensburg, had the startling performance of the day. She slashed more than 16 seconds off her school record and broke the MIAA standard by running 10 miutes, 49.13 seconds.
“It was one of those races that just looked so easy,” Vavra said. “She had a great tempo the entire race. The girl who was second (Pittsburg’s Erica Ogle) ran faster than Kara ever had and she was never really in the race.”
Weeks, a sophomore from Brownell, Kan., was equally dominant in the javelin. She entered the meet with the third-best qualifying throw, but took charge of the competition with a 142-foot throw before uncorking her record 151-5 effort in the second round.
That broke Barb Lawson’s 29-year-old school record by six feet. It was also 18 feet better than anyone else in the MIAA on Sunday.
With 24 points in the shot put, 13 in the 5,000 meters and 12 more in the 800, the Lions maintained a comfortable lead all day.
Sophomore Kimi Shank added a second-place finish in the 5,000 and a fourth in the 1,500 to the title she won the 10,000 on Saturday night.
“Jamie Burnham (distance coach) and Jamie Tallman (throws coach) have just worked wonders with those groups,” Vavra said. “They deserve a lot of credit for this.”
In contrast, very little went right for the Southern men on Sunday beyond a 26-point performance in the pole vault. Senior Russell Ellis won the vault, followed by Jacob Williams (third), Seager Wilson (fourth), Corey Shumate (sixth) and Phillip Horn (seventh).
“What could go wrong, did go wrong,” said Tom Rutledge, men’s coach. “It wasn’t a lack of effort, but we didn’t look sharp at times.
“We had some bright spots, but we just couldn’t push it through. It’s hard to cover 21 events (in the outdoor championships). No matter how I double and triple up the guys, we’re just not strong enough to do that.”
Sophomores Corey Reynolds and Chris Brown both hit season-best leaps in the high jump, but placed just fourth and fifth, respectively.
Junior Phillip Horn, who was second in the decathlon, added a fifth-place finish in the 110 hurdles and a personal-best effort in the high jump in addition to his best-ever vault.
Several Lion athletes will compete in the Last Chance Meet on Saturday at Emporia State.
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