Feb. 25, 2006

Nashville, Tenn. - The Southeast Missouri women and the Eastern Illinois men successfully defended their respective titles Saturday at the 2006 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Nashville, Tenn. The victory marked the sixth straight for the Panther men, while it was the third consecutive title for the Redhawk women.

Southeast Missouri's women recorded 137 points, while Tennessee State finished in second with 123. Eastern Kentucky placed third with 85 points, followed by Samford (77), Eastern Illinois (74), Austin Peay (49), Jacksonville State (43), Murray State (23), Tennessee Tech (6) and Morehead State (5).

EIU's men had 208.5 points while Southeast Missouri took second with 142 points. Tennessee State finished in third, recording 101.5 points, followed by Eastern Kentucky (73), Samford (44), Morehead State (36) and Murray State (11).

Southeast Missouri's Miles Smith was named OVC Male Athlete of the Championship. Smith ran the 200 meters in 21.66 to take first place and repeated as the 400-meter champion with a time of 47.54. He also anchored the Redhawks' 4x400-meter relay team that took first place with a time of 3:15.87.

Southeast coach Joey Haines was voted the OVC Women's Indoor Track Coach of the Year.

The Southeast women won seven events led by a double victory by Lindsay Zeiler who won the mile run with a time of 5:02.10 and came back to win the 3,000-meters in 10:09.94. The Redhawks had a 1-2-3 finish in the 3,000 with Jennifer Caywood, winner of the 5,000-meters on Friday, finishing second and Kris Woolf third.

Michele Jett won the pole vault, Heather West the triple jump and Heather Jenkins the weight throw.

The Southeast men got second place finishes from Kevin McNab in the 3,000-meters, Alonzo Nelson in the hurdles and Bilal Hameed in the triple jump.