Purdue, Indiana State to compete for trophy

By Greg Doddridge
Staff Writer

In Room 17 of Mackey Arena, a trophy sits atop the mailboxes of the track coaches, inscribed with Gene Edmonds’ last name. There the trophy will reside until tonight at 4:30 when it will travel to Lambert Fieldhouse, the site of the Purdue-Indiana State track dual meet.

"Gene was a great athlete here at Indiana State many years ago, went on to be one of the state's best high school coaches ever and then coached the women throwers at Purdue as his 'retirement job,'" said ISU women's track coach John Gartland.

The school with the top men and women's combined score wins the Edmonds' Trophy. And Purdue has won the trophy since its inception in 1996. Thus, the Sycamores are anxious to take the trophy back to Terre Haute, Ind., for once.

"We just don't have the up-front strength or the depth to compete with them," said Gartland. "We like competing against Purdue because it shows our athletes what the next level is like. Our athletes will compete hard, but Purdue should dominate the meet."

However, Purdue women's track coach Ben Paolillo said the meet should be fairly competitive across the board with a few exceptions.

"In the long and triple (jumps), they're not very strong," said Paolillo. "That may be an area where we dominate them. That and the pole vault."

The throwing events feature solid match-ups. Beth Hilton of ISU has thrown 56-7 1/2 in the 20-pound weight throw. She will counter Purdue’s Serene Ross and Cynthia Bortz. Ross has thrown 58-5 3/4 this year while Bortz has thrown 55-3 1/2. Sycamore Amanda Bright (44-3 1/4) faces Boiler freshman Tiffany Britten in the shot put. Britten threw a 42-11 at the Purdue Open on Jan. 12.

Gartland said he wanted to run ISU All-American Angie Bruecker, ranked seventh in the nation in the 800 meters by Trackwire, in the 400 meters against Krissy Liphardt, who has a time of 55.44 seconds. However, Bruecker is injured and her status is questionable. Gartland said if she runs it will be in the 800 and possibly the 60-meter hurdles.

On the men's side, the 60-meter hurdles will feature Sycamore Aubrey Herring and Boiler Prentice Stovall. Herring has run a 7.71 and already automatically qualified for the NCAAs in the hurdles. Stovall had a season best 8 flat at the Purdue Open and he ran an 8.18 last week at Kent. "Prentice Stovall, one of the top hurdlers in the Big Ten, will make this one of the best races of the night," said ISU men's track coach John McNichols.

Also, the 400 pits Terald Blakey (48.55) and Adrian Swanson of ISU against Markus Williams (47.66) of Purdue.

The Purdue coaching staff analyzed the meet match-ups by crunching the numbers with a computer. Assistant men's coach Lissa Olson said this is called doping the meet.

"We take all their best guys, what they've done this year and then all of our guys and what we've done this year, and I think I want to say we have us winning by like 2 or 3 points," said Olson.

McNichols said, "The Boilers do not have a 'weak' event that we could hope to pick up any easy points. It will take a very competitive effort on the part of any athlete from ISU to possibly take one of the top two scoring positions."

The meet tonight is being called 'Cram Lam 2001'. Lafayette radio station 95.7 The Rocket will be at the fieldhouse. There are several promotions with opportunities for fans to win free stuff. Also, all Purdue students get in free with their student ID.

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