• Roster
• ▪
• Schedule / Results
• ▪
• News
• ▪
• Archives

March 1, 2008

Complete Results | Quotes | MVC Championships Central

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The University of Northern Iowa track and field team crowned three champions on the opening day of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships at the UNI-Dome, including a record-setting performance by a freshman in the women's pentathlon.

Freshman Olimpia Nowak set a school record in the pentathlon by racking up 4,016 points, a total that also set a new MVC championship meet standard. The score provisionally qualifies Nowak for the NCAA Indoor Championships and ranks her No. 9 nationally in the event based on marks established before competition this weekend.

UNI also scored conference crowns in the pole vault and men's distance medley relay, with outstanding performances required to secure both titles.

On the men's side, Southern Illinois leads with 53 points, followed by the Panthers, who scored 49.5 on the first day of competition. Wichita State is third with 24 points.

UNI senior Raven Cepeda, who also competed in the first four events of the men's heptathlon, scored the sixth MVC title of his career by winning his first championship in the pole vault with a personal-best clearance of 16 feet, 9 inches. The win gave UNI its fourth-consecutive league title in the event.

The Panthers also successfully defended their title in the distance medley relay, with UNI's entry taking the win on the strength of sophomore Dorian Ulrey's impressive run down the stretch.

Running the 1,600-meter anchor leg, Ulrey took over with the Panthers riding in second place. That's where Ulrey remained until mounting a charge with two laps to go, reeling in Indiana State's John Lambertus and taking the lead exactly as he crossed the start/finish line for the bell lap. Ulrey finished his mile in 4:07.54 to lead UNI to a winning time of 9:59.93.

Besides its championship performances, the Panthers also saw several athletes earn All-MVC honors with their showings Saturday.

Nowak added to her hardware haul with a third-place finish in the women's long jump, while senior Rachel Jansen earned the eighth all-conference distinction for the eighth time by taking runner-up honors in the women's weight throw.

Jansen's heave of 64-10 1/2 set a UNI school record but was not enough to overcome the meet-record throw of national leader Brittany Riley of Southern Illinois, who threw 79-2 1/2.

Sophomore Dani Stipe and junior Alyssa Fischer rounded out the Panthers' 1-2-3 finish in the women's pentathlon, with Stipe posting an NCAA Indoor Championships provisional qualifying mark with her personal-best score of 3,957 points. Fischer took home third place with 3,575 points.

UNI senior Traci Hawley scored a runner-up finish in the women's 5,000 meters, matching her performance in the State Farm MVC Cross Country Championships last October. Her time of 17:09.92 is a new personal-best, as well.

A trio of Panther men also picked up All-MVC honors, led by pole vaulters Mike Beese and Phil Hanson who, along with Cepeda, earned a sweep of the top three places in the event for UNI. Also in the field events, UNI's Alvin Cole scored a runner-up finish in the men's long jump to earn an all-conference citation.

In her first championship meet competition, Nowak came up big with personal-best marks in the first four events of the day. Still, it was all she could to hold off the pair of teammates who also posted strong performances. Stipe set new personal-best marks in each of the day's five events.

Nowak jumped into the lead in the pentathlon immediately, claiming the 60 hurdles with a personal-best and UNI season-best clocking of 8.76 seconds. She followed that with a personal-best leap of 5 feet, 6 inches in the high jump to maintain a slim lead over Stipe, who also cleared 5-6, a personal best for the sophomore.

UNI's Rachel VanderHolt had the top mark in the high jump, posting an MVC-leading clearance of 5-8 1/2 to put herself in third place after two events.

Stipe also put up personal-best performances by running an 8.78 in the 60 hurdles, throwing 32-9 in the shot put and posting a jump of 19-3 in the long jump. She closed the day with the top mark in the long jump at 19-3 1/4 and then breezed to a six-second victory in the 800 meters.

Nowak extended her lead by matching the top mark in the shot put at 40 feet, 10 1/2 inches and then jumping 19-2 in the long jump. She ended with a 2:26.89 in the 800 meters, falling just one point shy of The Valley's all-time pentathlon record.

Fischer took home third place, with VanderHolt coming in fifth to secure a total of 28 team points for UNI in the pentathlon alone.

PRELIMINARIES RESULTS

The first day of the MVC Indoor Championships was composed largely of preliminary competition on the track, with several UNI athletes setting themselves up for strong showings in Sunday's finals.

Nowak and Cali Lyons each qualified for the finals of the women's 60-meter hurdles, while Cepeda, Wojciech Jurkowski and Valley leader Jarrel Anderson each will run for the MVC title in the men's 60 hurdles.

Blair Runde and Meredith Kosmacek-Simon are among the contenders in the finals of women's the 60-meter dash, with while Lauren Carruthers enters the finals of the women's 400 meters as the No. 2 seed. 

Amy Bagge and Jamie Hutchinson also are in contention for the title in the women's 800 meters, while Panthers will make up half of the field in the men's 800 meters. The foursome of UNI competitors in that race are led by junior Tyler Mulder, who owns the nation's fourth-best 800 mark this season at 1:48.17.

Kosmacek-Simon also will battle for the women's 200 meters championship, while Caedryn Schrunk will compete for UNI in the finals of the women's mile.

In the men's mile, Ulrey enters the finals as the conference leader with his school-record time of 4:01.66, while Terrance Reid will seek his seventh MVC championship in the finals of the 200 meters.

In the field events, Jansen will seek to become the MVC's first three-time champion in the women's shot put, with Adam Pinckney, Allen Weeks and Cepeda each competing in the men's shot put.

The Panther tandem of sophomores Ehi Oamen and Julian Morris will go toe-to-toe for the conference title in the men's high jump, as the duo owns the top two marks in the MVC this season, and each has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The Panthers also own the league's top two marks in the high jump, with VanderHolt moving to No. 1 on the conference list with her Saturday mark of 5-8 1/2, and senior and defending MVC indoor champion Crystal Hanson No. 2 on the MVC rundown at 5-8.

Competition begins Sunday at the UNI-Dome with the men's heptathlon at 10:30 a.m., while field events begin at 1 p.m. with the women's triple jump. The all-finals schedule on the track begins at 1:30 p.m. with the women's mile and concludes at 4:30 p.m. with the men's 4x400 relay.