FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 28, 2008

Williams/Selby-Tallman Earn MIAA Field Athlete of the Week Honors

Kansas City, Mo. -- Missouri Southern seniors Jacob Williams and Jessica Selby-Tallman have been named the MIAA Men's and Women's Field Athlete of the Week as announced by the league office today.

Williams, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound senior from Chanute, Kan., earned an automatic berth to the national meet with his third-place finish in the pole vault at the MSSU Baymont Inn/Fazoli's Open Saturday (Jan. 26). Williams hit 16 feet, six inches (5.03m) to automatically qualify in the pole vault. It is also the top height in division II this year. He was the top collegiate performer in the event.

Selby-Tallman, a 5-foot-8 senior from Galena, Mo., improved her automatic qualifying mark in the shot put and also automatically qualified for the weight throw at the MSSU Baymont Inn/Fazoli's Open last weekend (Jan. 25-26).

Already qualified in the shot put with her first meet of the year two weeks ago, Selby-Tallman improved on that distance twice this past weekend. In her first throw of finals, the senior tossed a distance of 50 feet and three quarters of an inch (15.26m) which at the time was the longest shot put in Division II this season. In her second throw, she launched the shot 51 feet, eight and one quarter inches, breaking her own school record and breaking the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center facility record, as well. The mark also improved her seed for nationals.

On Friday, Selby-Tallman launched a throw of 59 feet, four and a quarter inches (18.09m) in her first throw of finals to automatically qualify for the weight throw for this year's indoor meet. Her previous best in the indoor weight throw was 54 feet, four inches which she threw two weeks ago at Arkansas.

This is the second time Selby-Tallman has won the award this season and she has picked up the honor in each week in which she has competed.

The Lions will be back in action this weekend competing at the University of Nebraska.