FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 28, 2006

Southern sending 10 to indoor nationals

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Ten Missouri Southern State University student-athletes can pack their bags for Boston and the 2006 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships.

The Lion men are sending seven athletes to the national meet, while the MSSU women will be represented by three athletes. The NCAA-II Indoor National Championships will be held March 10-11 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

The Missouri Southern men qualified three pole vaulters. Senior Matt Campbell (Worthington, Ind.) is currently tied for the top NCAA-II national ranking with his mark of 17 feet, 1 inch. Senior Kyle Rutledge (Joplin, Mo.) is close behind at 16-8.75 and sophomore Russell Ellis (Caddo Gap, Ark.) is tied for sixth at 16-2.75. The trio finished 1-2-3 at last weekend's Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Indoor Championships in Joplin.

Rutledge and Campbell, now a three-time MIAA indoor pole vault champion, both had automatic national qualifying marks through much of the indoor season.

Campbell, the 2005 NCAA-II outdoor national champion and indoor national runner-up, will be looking for his second straight indoor All-America honor. Rutledge, making his third trip to the indoor national meet, was an All-American with a sixth-place national finish in the event in 2003.

For Ellis, it's his first national championships appearance. He was on a "contingency" list for last year's outdoor meet, but didn't make the trip to nationals.

On the track, the Lion men have qualified in two events.

Junior Marcus Walton (Potosi, Mo.) will make the trip in the 800-meter run. He currently ranks ninth in NCAA-II with his time of 1:52.53 turned in at the University of Arkansas Tyson Invitational earlier this month.

Walton will also run the 800-meter leg of the distance medley relay at the national meet in Boston. The Lions' DMR team of freshman Dustin Dixon (St. Clair, Mo.), sophomore Kyle Davis (Potosi, Mo.), Walton and senior Kyler Rushing (Sarcoxie, Mo.) ranks fifth in the nation with its school record time of 9:55.29. That clocking, from the Tyson Invitational, had the Lions an automatic berth at the national meet.

Head coach Tom Rutledge has selected Bret Musser (St. Joseph, Mo.) as an alternate on the DMR, since Dixon has been battling an injury.

The Lion men had one near miss, as senior Mike Hines (Miami, Fla.) came up just short in the shot put. Hines, whose best throw in the shot was 53-8.25, came up just an inch shy of earning a spot in Boston.

On the women's side, sophomore Jessica Selby (Galena, Mo.) made the national meet in the shot put. Her season-best and school-record throw of 49-1.50 is tops in NCAA-II and is 9.5 inches better than her next closest competition on the national slate. Selby has had a spot sewed up at the national event since turning in the automatic mark at the University of Arkansas in late January.

Selby, who last week won her second straight MIAA indoor championship in the shot, was an All-American as a freshman in 2005 with a fourth-place national finish in the event.

Senior Iashia Castle (Kansas City, Mo.) is making her first trip to the NCAA-II indoor meet after qualifying in the triple jump. Castle currently ranks eighth in the country with her season-best mark of 39-4.50 turned in last weekend at the MIAA Indoor Championships.

Alison Walker (West Plains, Mo.), a sophomore, is heading to the national meet in the 800-meter run thanks to her school record clocking of 2:13.92 from the Tyson Invitational. Walker currently ranks 12th nationally in the event and has qualified for the national championships for the second time. She qualified as a freshman in 2005, but couldn't run due to an injury.