May 13, 2003

Southern track & field teams sending eight to NCAA meet

Eight Missouri Southern individuals have qualified in eight events for the 2003 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships to be held May 22-24 at Korte Stadium on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

The Missouri Southern men's team has qualified six athletes in five events. The Lady Lions will send two competitors in three events.

For the Lions, five returning national qualifiers will make the trip, including 2003 indoor national champion and two-time outdoor All-America pole vaulter Seth Isringhausen (Nixa, Mo.). Isringhausen ranked 17th nationally in the pole vault coming in, but was helped by his status as a national champion from the most recent indoor campaign. As a junior, he placed fifth in the pole vault at the Division II outdoor meet, a year after he tied for third in the event.

Isringhausen will be one of two Southern vaulters in action at the meet, with junior Chris Turner (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton HS) making the trip as well. Turner, who placed third in the pole vault at last year's outdoor national championships, ranked 16th in the event coming in. Both Turner and IsringhausenÕs best marks of the spring were 16'-3.25".

Three from the Lions' stellar crew of throwers will join Turner and Isringhausen. Sophomore Arley Smith (Pierce City, Mo.) made the national field in both the discus and hammer throw, sophomore Mika Alahaivala (Ylivieska, Finland) will compete in the javelin and senior Jamie Tallman (Neodesha, Kan.) will join Smith in the hammer.

Smith, an All-America in the discus with a seventh-place finish at last year's outdoor meet, heads into the 2003 championships ranked ninth in the discus (171Õ-7Ó) and 11th in the hammer (184Õ-10.75Ó).

Alahaivala has had his ticket officially punched for Edwardsville for quite some time. He currently ranks No. 1 in the nation in the javelin, and has through most of the season. He earned an automatic berth for the championships with his school-record throw of 223'-7" on April 12 at the University of Arkansas.

Tallman, in his final year of competition for the Lions, will make his first ever national championships trip. He currently ranks 17th in the hammer and likely got into the national meet on the strength of his qualifying throw (179'-7.5") at last week's Emporia State Twilight Qualifier. That heave improved his previous provisional mark by more than three feet.

Joining the Lions' five field events competitors is junior Magnus Holmstrom (Inga, Finland) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Holmstrom, an All-America in the same event last year, ranks 19th nationally in the steeplechase with his season-best time of 9:14.86.

On the women's side, a couple of familiar faces will be returning to the national scene. Junior Mary Garrett (Carthage, Mo.) and sophomore Danee Jones (Clayton, Mo.) are heading to Edwardsville. Over most of the season, there was little doubt whether Garrett or Jones would be invited to the NCAA meet. Since turning in a blazing 59.92 clocking in the 400-meter hurdles at the Missouri Southern SportsWorld Invitational on April 5, Garrett has ranked at the top of the Division II heap. She comes in tied, with North Dakota State's Kinsey Coles, for the No. 1 ranking in the country. Garrett has twice been an All-America in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing second as a freshman in 2000 and fourth as a sophomore in 2001 before missing last yearÕs season with a leg injury.

Jones, like Smith on the men's side, will double up at the 2003 outdoor nationals. She's qualified in both the hammer (ninth in the nation, 174'-2") and discus (11th, 151'-8.25"). This past winter, Jones captured her first career All-America award as she placed third in the weight throw at the Division II Indoor Championships in Boston. However, the two-time indoor national qualifier is making her first ever visit to the D2 outdoor meet.