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Meeks, Women's 4x100 Relay Advance
May 26, 2006 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Bronco Meeks and the Illinois State women's 4x100-meter relay team of Anna Lovell, Cherise Devers, Kyndra Curtin and Devon Williams provided the only advancement for the Redbirds into the finals on the opening day of the 2006 NCAA Mideast Track and Field Regional on Friday. Meeks clocked his second-best time of the season in the 800-meter run to finish third in his heat. His time of 1:49.72 was the seventh fastest on the day, and qualified Meeks for Saturday's final at 6:15 p.m. With a top-five finish in the final, Meeks is guaranteed a trip to the national championship meet next weekend. "Bronco has really put himself in a good position for the final," assistant coach Tim Thompson said. "It is going to be a much faster final, so he will have to be aggressive. He was in the fastest heat today, and that really suits his style." The hopes of the women's 4x100 relay appeared to be dashed after a last-place finish in the opening four-team heat, but the time recorded by Lovell, Devers, Curtin and Williams stood. After notching a time of 45.59 seconds, the Redbirds claimed the eighth and final spot in the final, which will be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday. "After their heat, they were really disappointed after finishing fourth, but after each of the following heats they started to see that their time was going to stand," Thompson said. The Redbird quartet had only been practicing for a few days after Curtin replaced the injured Lian Lucas two days prior to the regional meet. "Having Kyndra in there instead of Lian, obviously had an effect," Thompson said. "These four have not had a lot of practices with this configuration, but after another chance today, I expect the handoffs to be better (on Saturday)." Williams also competed in the preliminaries of the women's 100- and 200-meter dashes. She posted a time of 11.6 seconds in the 100, good for 18th place, while finishing 13th in the 200 with a time of 24.08 seconds. Senior Andrea Mosher grinded out her best time of the season in the 400-meter hurdles, but it wasn't enough as she finished 10th overall and missed the finals by one-tenth of a second. "Her strategy was to hold back at the start so she could really make a run at the finish," Thompson said. "She ended up running her best time of the year, but the finish line came up just a little too soon. She has the 4x400 (on Saturday) and we expect her to come back strong." With two competing in the men's hammer throw, neither Redbird advanced to the event finals. Senior Brian Krantz finished in 14th place, with a throw of 186 feet, four inches on his first toss, while fellow senior Mark Jackson placed 21st with a distance of 173 feet, eight inches. Krantz also failed to qualify for the finals in the discus, after finishing 24th with a mark of 153 feet and one inch. Earlier in the day, Lauren Maul cleared 5-foot-7 on her second attempt in the women's high jump, but was never able to add to her mark and finished in a tie for 12th place. Including Meeks and the 4x100 relay team, the Redbirds will participate in a total of nine events on the second and final day of the meet.
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