March 01, 2005
USI track and field sends five to nationals
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana women’s track and field team had five competitors listed on the final declaration sheet to compete at the NCAA II Indoor Championships in Boston, Massachusetts, March 11-12.
Junior All-American Heather Cooksey (Brownsburg, Indiana) and sophomore All-American Candace Perry (Anderson, Indiana) will compete individually, while Cooksey and senior Crystal Stock (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) as well as sophomores Missy Burgin (Sellersburg, Indiana) and Natalie Clark (Newburgh, Indiana) will team up for the distance medley relay.
Due to conflicts with the DMR competition, Cooksey will scratch out of the mile and run the 5,000 meters on March 12. She is seeded 12th with a time of 17 minutes, 11.57 seconds, but has a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 46.79 seconds that would rank her third in the field. Cooksey was the national champion in the outdoor 3,000 meters last spring after finishing third in the indoor mile at nationals last winter.
Perry, a two-time All-American in the long jump, is seeded second with her season-best jump of 19 feet, 11.50 seconds. Perry is making her third trip to nationals after qualifying for both the indoor and outdoor national championships as a freshman last season. She finished second at the NCAA II Outdoor Championships last year with a school-record leap of 20 feet, 1.50 inches.
USI’s DMR team is the first relay team in school history to qualify for nationals. The squad is seeded fifth in the field with an adjusted time of 11 minutes, 52.55 seconds. The Screaming Eagles finished first in three of the four meets they ran at this season, including the GLVC Indoor Championships this past Saturday.
The Eagles will depart for Boston next week.
Dan McDonnell,
USI Sports Information
