May 17, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lions get five in NCAA-II Outdoor Track & Field Championships

JOPLIN, Mo. - Missouri Southern State University will be represented by five student-athletes next week at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Emporia, Kan.

All five of the MSSU qualifiers will be competing in field events in the national meet to be hosted by Emporia State University. The Lion men qualified three performers in two events. The Southern women are sending two student-athletes to compete in three events.

Senior Matt Campbell (Worthington, Ind.) leads the list of Missouri Southern men heading to the national championships. Campbell, the defending outdoor national champion in the pole vault, currently ranks second in NCAA-II with his season-best and school-record vault of 17 feet, 4.5 inches. The 2006 trip to the NCAA meet marks Campbell's sixth consecutive national championships appearance as a Lion. He's a three-time All-American (twice indoors, once outdoors) and a two-time national champion (once indoors, once outdoors).

Sophomore Russell Ellis (Caddo Gap, Ark.) will join Campbell in the men's pole vault field. Ellis is currently ranked No. 6 in the event with his season-best mark of 16-6.75. It's Ellis' second national championships appearance; he also qualified earlier this year for the NCAA-II Indoor Track & Field Championships. Ellis narrowly missed making last year's NCAA-II outdoor field in the pole vault.

Another near miss, this one from the most recent indoor season, was Mike Hines (Miami, Fla.), who made sure that didn't happen again. Hines is in the national field in the men's shot put, and he ranks seventh nationally in the event with his top throw this year of 56 feet. Hines, a three-time NCAA-II national qualifier, was an All-American last outdoor season in the shot with a sixth-place finish.

The MSSU women have a competitor in two of the throws. Sophomore Jessica Selby (Galena, Mo.) ranks fifth in NCAA-II in the hammer as she threw 177-7.25 last weekend in Emporia. She's also 13th in the shot put at 46-6. This marks the fourth straight national championships appearance for Selby, a two-time indoor All-American in the shot put who is still searching for her first outdoor All-America award. Selby has previously qualified for the national meet in only the shot put, but this year has added the weight throw to her repertoire.

Senior Iashia Castle (Kansas City, Mo.) is heading to the national meet in the triple jump. Castle, 17th in Division II in the triple jump at 39-7.75, slid in just above the cut in the women's triple jump. She is making her second NCAA-II championships appearance after earning All-America honors this past indoor season with an eighth-place finish in the triple jump.

Last year, Missouri Southern's men finished sixth in the final team standings at the NCAA-II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The MSSU men and women crowned six total All-Americans last season and had five All-Americans at this past season's NCAA-II indoor national meet. Both Southern teams are coming off fifth-place finishes in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.


 

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