April 27, 2006

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State University track star Miles Smith has been scratched from the invitational 400-meters at the world famous Drake Relays on Saturday because of a lingering sore leg.

College and universities from all four corners of the United States will compete in the 97th running of the Drake Relays. There will be colleges and universities representing 25 states and there will be athletes from 78 countries.

Officials expect 8,148 athletes, representing 720 teams, will participate in the 97th running of the Drake Relays Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Drake Stadium.

Smith, a gold medalist at last summer's World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, was rested last week, but had hoped to compete at Drake.. "Miles has responded to treatments on his leg but he had some soreness during workouts on Tuesday and so we have elected to rest him one more week," said Southeast Missouri track coach Joey Haines. "We need him healthy for the OVC championships and hopefully another week of rest will do the trick."

Southeast will run the Distance Medley relay at Drake on Saturday with Danny Stults, Chris Williams, Mark McNamara and Kevin McNab. Alonzo Nelson will run the 400-meter hurdles.

Jason Theodorakos will compete in the men's javelin at 11 a.m. Saturday with Heather Jenkins entered in the women's discus at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

The remainder of the Southeast men's and women's teams will compete in a meet at SIU-Edwardsville on Saturday. "We need for everyone to have good competition in our final tuneup for the OVC championships," Haines said. "The meet at SIU-Edwardsville will be very competitive and of course the Drake Relays in one of the nation's top meets."

The Redhawks boast this week's Ohio Valley Conference Male Field and Track Athletes of the Week. Kevin McNab is the Male Track Athlete of the Week after placing second in the steeplechase at the Vanderbilt Invitational. His time of 9:03.05 is the fastest in the OVC this season and qualifies him for the NCAA Regional.

Jordan Willi is the OVC Field Athlete of the Week after winning the pole vault at Vanderbilt with a vault of 15-11.

Southeast will host the OVC championships at the Abe Stuber Track & Field Complex on Friday and Saturday, May 5-6.