Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Track teams working hard to repeat past success

Monday, November 30, 2015
Last year's Southeast Missouri State men's track and field team poses with its 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championship trophy.
Submitted photo

The Southeast Missouri State men's and women's track and field teams are in preparation for the upcoming indoor season with their first meet quickly approaching. The Redhawks' first meet will be Dec. 11 at the EIU Early Bird Invitational in Charleston, Illinois.

Both the men and women had successful indoor seasons last year. The men's team won its second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championship while the women's team finished third.

The men and women combined for 10 gold medals in the championship meet, with the men winning seven.

Four of the gold medalists for the men have since graduated. Chris Navarro placed first in the heptathlon and second in the pentathlon, Kevin Farley took home the gold medal in weight throw, Reggie Miller won the triple jump and Blake Smith won the 60 meter dash while also breaking the OVC championship record.

Expectations still remain high for the Redhawks going into this year.

"We go into every season with the expectation to try and contend for a conference championship," coach Eric Crumpecker said. "That is always our goal. Our men's team... graduated a lot of guys from last year's team, so realistically I think we have some work to do to get that done. We have a lot of young guys, and our success this year is going to depend on how those young guys progress over the course of the season."

The men will return several key athletes for this season.

"[Sophomore sprinter] Jarred Pasley has been looking good out here in the fall," Crumpecker said. "He had a good freshman campaign last year and I can't wait to see what he does in his sophomore year here. [Senior pole vaulter] Christian Locke is our one returning conference champ on the men's side on the pole vault, so he's been looking good this fall."

Locke, sophomore pole vaulter Tyler Jourdan and junior pole vaulter Duncan Ross took the top three spots in the pole vault in last year's OVC Indoor Championship.

The women will bring back both athletes who combined for their three gold medals from last season. Senior sprinter Ayonna Cartwright broke the OVC championship record in the 60 meter dash last season and also won the 200 meter dash. Senior thrower Kayla Gutierrez holds the Southeast record for women's weight throw.

"Our women returned a lot of good people and we feel good about our women's team going into this year," Crumpecker said.

The Redhawks cross country team will hope to contribute on the long distance events after its season recently ended. Junior distance runner Marc Maton was the top finisher for the Southeast men's cross country team in four out of five meets, and junior distance runner Megan Parks was the top finisher for the Southeast women's cross country team in four out of five meets. Maton finished fourth last year in the mile run in the OVC Indoor Championships while Parks placed seventh in the 800 meter run.

Southeast is working to continue its indoor success.

"A lot of us are out here every day at practice working hard," Pasley said. "We won last year's indoor, so of course I want to try and go back and win it again. We have big expectations."

"I mean we just work hard out here," Crumpecker said. "You see the weight room, we have people who just work their butts off. That's the name of the game in this sport. ... Just work hard and want to get better."

Since 2013, Crumpecker has led the Redhawks to three indoor championships and two outdoor championships. In that time, he also has won the OVC Indoor Coach of the Year three times and OVC Outdoor Coach of the Year once.

"We're hoping that we can put everything together and take a crack at winning the conference meet," Crumpecker said.

Southeast is hosting two meets this year starting with the SIUE -- Dual Meet on Jan. 29 and the Redhawks Invitational on Feb. 19.

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