May 3, 2006

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State University will host the 2006 Ohio Valley Conference men's and women's outdoor track and field championships on Friday and Saturday at the Abe Stuber Track & Field Complex.

Friday's action begins with field events at 1 p.m. and the first running event scheduled for 2:15 p.m. On Saturday, field events begin at 11 a.m. with the running events starting at 12-noon.

Southeast Missouri State will defend titles in both the men's and women's meet with the women favored to win a second straight title while Eastern Illinois will be favored in the men's meet with a strong challenge from Southeast Missouri.

The Redhawks women won last year's outdoor meet and took the OVC indoor championships earlier this year. The Southeast men were second in the 2006 indoor after upsetting Eastern Illinois in the 2005 outdoor championships.

The meet will feature at least two world class competitors in Southeast Missouri's Miles Smith in the 400-meters and Eastern Kentucky's Jacob Korir in the 5,000-meters. Smith was a gold medalist at last year's world championships in Helsinki, Finland while Korir is one of Kenya's top distance runners.

Smith, who will also run the 200-meters and on both Southeast relays, has the third fastest 400-meter time in NCAA Division I this season with an OVC best 45.74. Korir has the eighth fastest time in Division I in the 5,000 with an OVC best 13:40.14.

The women's meet will feature discus and shot put thrower Heather Jenkins who was the 2004 OVC female athlete of the year in both indoor and outdoor track. She has the best throw in the OVC in both the shot and discus. Her throw of 166-feet in the discus is ranked 42nd nationally in NCAA Division I.