April 14, 2009

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - The men's and women's track teams at Southeast Missouri State University will compete in the prestigious Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, California on Thursday and Friday.

The Mt. Sac Relays has over 8,000 entries each year with only the world's top athletes selected to compete. There will be schools from all over the nation as well as unattached athletes from the U.S., England, Japan and Australia.

"This is a great chance for our top athletes to compete against the nation's best," said Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker. "This is one of the most prestigious meets in the country and we were honored to have 14 of our athletes selected to compete. We will also take our throwers on to the Long Beach Invitational at Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday."

The 51st annual Mt. Sac Relays, "Where the World's Best Athletes Perform", begin with the 10,000-meters and steeplechase competition on Thursday. The Redhawks will have Brandon Karcher and Jason Lumpkin in the 10K and Juli Koenegstein will compete in the steeplechase. Nathan Shipley was selected to compete in the 10K, but due to a nagging injury will pass up Mt. Sac and will run the 5,000-meters at Long Beach on Saturday.

Other Southeast entries at the Mt. Sac Relays will include Chris Gill, 400m; Dan Stults, 800m; Paul Stemmerman, 1500m; Tyler Terry, long jump and triple jump; Andrew Glass, shot put; Josh Uchtman, shot put; Brandon Colbert, discus; Samantha Espiricueta, javelin; Ashley Brewer, discus and shot put; Rachel Kahle, long jump and Whitney Thomas, 100m hurdles.

Rebecca Martin, javelin and Brianna Egbuka, shot put, are alternates at Mt. Sac and will throw at Long Beach State on Saturday along with the other Southeast throwers. Rachel Kahle will run the 400-meters at Long Beach and Kasey Owens will run the 1,500-meters.

Additional Southeast track team members will compete in a meet at Memphis on Saturday.