April 6, 2008

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State senior Miles Smith recoreded the fastest collegiate time in the 400-meters this season as he timed 46.23 to win his fourth straight SEmotion Relays title.

Smith ranked fourth nationally in the Track & Field News form chart won over a talented field that included Maxwell Mkwezalamba of Illinois who is ranked fifth nationally by Track & Field News. Mkwezalamba finished seventh Saturday with a time of 49.40. Kyle Rose of SIU-Edwardsville was second in 46.85.

The Redhawks men's team fared well in the field events with John Berry winning the long jump with a jump of 25-feet, Bilal Hameed winning the triple jump at 48-9 and Ben Stricklin winning the javelin with an NCAA Regional qualifying throw of 214-6.

Brandon Karcher claimed a win for the Redhawks in the 5,000-meters with a winning time of 15:05.34.

Orie Ibe claimed the title in the women's 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.44.

Several new SEmotion Relays records were established Steffen Nerdal of Memphis set a new men's hammer throw record with a winning throw of 221-3 and Brittany Riley of Southern Illinois broke her own SEmotion Relays record in the hammer with a throw of 222-8.

Mary Ballinger of Southern Indiana set a new 3,000-meter steeplechase record with a time of 10:48.49.

The meet was scored as a series of dual meets with each team scored in a dual against all the other teams. Southern Illinois-Carbondale won both the men's and women's team titles going undefeated with dual wins over all the other schools.