May 3, 2008

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - It took a win in the final event, the 4 X 400-meter relay, to give Southeast Missouri State the Ohio Valley Conference men's outdoor track and field championship.

Leading by only a half point going into the final relay, Southeast needed a win but had to run without star Miles Smith who suffered an apparent leg injury in the 200-meters. That left the team of Myron Pettigrew, Robert Delaria, Ryan Ciglar and Chris Poindexter with the mission of winning the event for the OVC title in Coach Joey Haines final OVC championship.

Southeast and second place Eastern Illinois ran stride for stride through the first three legs of the relay with the Redhawks maintaining a slight lead. Poindexter had the anchor carry and brought home the win in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Abe Stuber Track & Field Complex.

Haines, who has announced his retirement at the end of the season, was named the OVC Men's Coach of the Year, giving him 20 OVC Coach of the Year awards for his illustrious career.

Southeast tallied 174.5 points to edge Eastern Illinois with 172. Eastern Kentucky was third with 96.5, Tennessee State fourth with 77, Samford fifth with 49 and Morehead State sixth with 14.

Smith had helped Southeast to a lead in the championship by running a key leg on the winning 4 X 100-meter relay and a victory in the 400-meters. His injury came during the 200-meters.

The Redhawks who won four of six events on Friday, had other key wins on the final day with Paul Stimmerman winning the 1,500-meters and Bilal Hameed winning the triple jump.

With Eastern Illinois battling back after trailing big early in the day, the Redhawks got a key third place finish by Brandon Karcher in the 5,000. He won the 10,000-meters on Friday and doubled back for key points.

Eastern Illinois used depth to stay in the title hunt. The Panthers scored 10 points in the 800, and 20 points in the high jump without winning the events and added a 1-2 finish for 18 points in the pole vault with Dorrian White winning.

Shannon Davis of Eastern Kentucky won the 100 and 200-meters to claim Male Athlete of the Meet honors.

Tennessee State won the women's OVC crown behind a stellar performance by Dominique Holmes who won the 200 and 400-meter dashes and ran on both winning relay teams.

The Tigerbelles tallied 164.5 points with Samford second with 118.5, Eastern Illinois third with 111.5 and Southeast missouri fourth with 95.

Tennessee State coach, former Olympic gold medalist Chandra Cheeseborough was chosen as the OVC Female Coach of the Year.