2005 Women’s Track and Field Outlook
A wealth of talent has the University of
Southern Indiana women’s track and field team thinking big in 2005.
Head Coach Mike Hillyard will have three
All-Americans and a potential All-American to lead a group of Screaming Eagles
that is ready to surprise people in the GLVC and continue its recent success
at the national stage.
The Eagles are coming off a seventh-place finish at the NCAA II Outdoor
Championships last May and were fourth at the GLVC Indoor Championships last
February.
Leading the list of returnees is six-time All-American
Heather Cooksey as well as
two-time All-Americans Abby Boberg
and Candace Perry.
Cooksey is the defending NCAA Division II champion in the outdoor 3,000 meters
and has been the most dominate competitor in the history of USI women’s
athletics. Entering the indoor track and field season, Cooksey, who won the
GLVC and NCAA II Great Lakes Region titles in cross country in the fall, has
won 26 races in cross country and track and holds 16 school-records.
The junior has been named the NCAA II Great Lakes Region Female Athlete of the
Year for cross country and track and field and is a favorite to win national
championships in the indoor mile as well as the outdoor 3,000 and 5,000
meters. She was third in the mile at the NCAA II Indoor Championships last
March.
Perry nearly became the first female competitor in school history to win a
national championship when she leaped a school-record 20 feet, 1.5 inches in
the long jump as a freshman at the 2004 NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field
Championships. The sophomore earned both her All-America honors in the long
jump last year, after finishing second by less than an inch at the outdoor
national championships and sixth at the indoor national championships.
Her performances at the GLVC Indoor and Outdoor Championships were both
record-setting conference marks.
Boberg returns for her junior season after picking up her first outdoor
All-America honors last May. The high jumper who burst onto the national scene
as a freshman in 2003 with an All-America performance at the indoor national
championships, placed sixth at the outdoor national championships in 2004.
Senior graduate student Crystal
Stock comes to the Eagles from the University of Evansville where she
was a three-time Most Valuable Runner. Stock is UE’s 6k record-holder with a
time of 22 minutes, 18 seconds.
Stock will give the Eagles a GLVC Championship-caliber competitor in the
distance races as well as a competitor that can score high on the national
level.
The healthy return of senior
Casey Schneider coupled with the steady performances of sophomore
Missy Burgin has USI’s
distance squad loaded with depth.
Schneider has experience competing in the NCAA II Track and Field
Championships and will be a strong candidate to lead the Eagles in the indoor
5,000 meters and the outdoor 10,000 meters.
Burgin is a two-time All-GLVC competitor in cross country and will be counted
on to provide depth in the distance areas.
Sophomore sprinter Natalie Clark
became the first athlete in USI history to earn All-GLVC honors in a sprinting
event. Clark finished second in the 400 meters at the GLVC Outdoor
Championships, setting a provisional qualifying time with her school-record
time of 56.25 seconds.
With Clark anchoring an ever-improving sprint team, and the depth and
versatility the Eagles possess in their distance squad, Hillyard will have one
of the top distance medley relay (DMR) teams in the country.
New to the NCAA II Indoor Track and Field Championships in 2005 will be the
DMR competition. The Eagles have been strong in the DMR the last couple of
years, taking home the league championship in 2003.
With Perry and Boberg, USI will have one of the top one-two punches in the
country in the fielding events. With added depth in sophomores
Erin Kutcosky and
Molly Gilland, the Eagles
could jump leaps and bounds over opponents in the race for a conference
championship.
Kutcosky should score high and is a potential All-GLVC performer in the triple
jump where she finished fourth at both the GLVC Indoor and Outdoor
Championships as a freshman last season. She also will be counted on to score
in the long jump at the conference meets in 2005.
Gilland will be a scorer for the Eagles in the high jump, where she was third
at the GLVC Indoor Championships and seventh at the GLVC Outdoor Championships
as a freshman in 2004.
USI will open the indoor season January 22 at the Rose-Hulman Quad. The Eagles
took home their first team championship in school history last year at the
Rose-Hulman Eight-Team Invitational.
The Eagles, who will compete in six meets during the regular season, will
compete at the GLVC Indoor Championships February 26 in Crawfordsville,
Indiana. The NCAA II Indoor Championships are March 11-12 in Boston,
Massachusetts.
USI will open its outdoor season March 26 at the Spring Classic in Carbondale,
Illinois. That will be the first of eight regular-season meets for the Eagles.
The GLVC Outdoor Championships are slated for May 6-7 in Romeoville, Illinois,
with the NCAA II Outdoor Championships scheduled for May 26-28 in Abilene,
Texas.
