FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2008

Track teams qualify seven athletes for Division II National Meet

Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern track and field teams have qualified seven athletes for the 2008 Division II National Meet to take place at Minnesota State University - Mankato.

Four women and three men will make the trek north for the event. On the women's side, senior thrower's Jessica Selby-Tallman and Jessica Self will go, along with senior Erica Culver in the Pole Vault and sophomore Kimi Shank in the 5k.

Selby-Tallman, the national leader in the shot put, will look to capture her first National Title in the event. She leads all of Division II with her distance of 51 feet, nine inches that won her her fourth-straight MIAA Indoor title this past weekend. Self threw 56 feet, eight inches in the weight throw to finish second to Selby-Tallman this past weekend, and ranks 13th nationally. She will be making her first trip to nationals.

Shank finished second in the 5k at this past weekend's MIAA Championships. She ranks fourth nationally with her school record time of 17:07.05 she ran at the Tyson Invitational at the University of Arkansas. Culver won the MIAA Indoor Pole Vault title for the second time in a row this past weekend with a height 12 feet, one and a half inches. She ranks 11th nationally in the event.

From the men, two pole vaulters, Jacob Williams and Russell Ellis, as well as high jumper Corey Reynolds will make the trip to Mankato.

Williams won his first MIAA Indoor Pole Vault title this past weekend with a height of 16 feet, six and three quarter inches. Earlier in the season he vaulted to 17 feet, one inch at the Prairie Wolf Invite in Lincoln Nebraska and that height ranks second, nationally. Ellis hit 16 feet, six inches earlier in the year at the MSSU Radio Shack Invite, ranking his fifth nationally in the event.

Corey Reynolds saved his best performance of the year for the MIAA Championships this past Saturday. He finished third with a jump of six feet, ten and three quarter inches to rank fourth in Division II this year.

The Missouri Southern women won their second MIAA Indoor Title this past weekend and will go into the National Meet ranked third in Division II. Southern's men's program finished second at the conference meet and are ranked 21st nationally.