Boilers to attend Texas invite

By Katie Rippel
Staff Writer

The Purdue women's track and field team is not competing in just any meet this weekend. They are down in Austin, Texas, competing in what Coach Ben Paolillo calls "a true national team championship."

The Boilermakers are one of 14 teams invited to compete in the National Invitational Team Championship based on their finish in the power rankings at the end of last year's outdoor season. The Big Ten outdoor title helped put Purdue in the top 10 in the rankings, so the team is being rewarded now with the opportunity to go up against some of the best competition in the country this weekend. The Boilers were the only Big Ten team invited to compete.

"We're proud to be in the inaugural event, excited to be going, to be a part of it," said Paolillo. "It's like going to the national championships. It's going to be 10 times tougher than the Big Ten meet."

The field includes perennial top-25 caliber programs such as UCLA, the University of Southern California, Louisiana State, host Texas and Kansas State. Each school is allowed to have two athletes compete in each event, resulting in great matchups in nearly every race and field event.

The meet is also being scored, which has become a little unusual in the world of track and field. Because of the qualification system for the NCAA national championships, team standings don't necessarily matter — meets are all about individuals making the time or height or distance in their respective event. This weekend's meet will go back to the old way of making it into a team competition, something Paolillo thinks will be an advantage to his team.

"You get into scored meets and you don't worry about how fast you're going, how far you're throwing — you just compete and the times tend to come from there," he said.

Senior Carri Long will lead the Boilers into the competition this weekend. She's coming off a great weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays and Long Beach Invitational. She improved her NCAA provisional qualifying height in the high jump to 5-feet-10 3/4 inches.

Long will face the 1999 national indoor champion in the high jump, Texas' Erin Aldrich. Aldrich leads the country in the event, but Long beat her at this year's indoor national championships.

Long was also awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor at the Senior Salute Monday night. The award is based on a combination of athletics and academics and is awarded to one male and one female from each school. Long is the fourth woman from the Purdue track and field team to earn the honor.

Distance runner Ann Stechschulte is also coming off a great weekend. The junior provisionally qualified for the NCAAs in the 5,000-meter run.

"Ann's kicking off that distance level, so I'm really proud of her," Paolillo said.

The trials of the meet begin at 6 p.m. The finals in the javelin, hammer throw and 5,000-meter run will also be held today, with the rest of the finals beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

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