FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2008

Lions track earns three MIAA Player of the Week honors

Kansas City, Mo. -- Russell Ellis (Caddo Gap, Ark.), as well as Kimi Shank (Rolla, Mo.) and Jessica Selby-Tallman (Galena, Mo.) have all been named MIAA Track and Field Athletes of the Week as announced by the league office today.

Ellis earned an automatic qualifying mark in the pole vault this past weekend at the MSSU Track and Field Festival. The senior valulted to a height of 16 feet, five and a half inches, placing second in the event. He finished behind only the 2008 NCAA Division II Indoor Pole Vault Champion, Bryant Wilson of Grand Valley State.

Shank already holds the nation's best time in the 5k and finished just in front of teammate Courtney Waltbillig to win the 3k with a provisional time of 10:06.39. That time is a top ten performance this year.

Selby-Tallman threw the shot put over 50 feet for the first time in her outdoor career and she set a new school record, picking up an automatic qualification for nationals in the event. Her distance of 50 feet, four and a half inches breaks her own school record of 49 feet, ten inches set last year at Emporia State. The mark is also tops in Division II this season. She picked up another automatic qualification in the hammer with a heave of 181 feet, five inches to win the event.