May 15, 2006

Arlington, TX - Darrick Brown and Michelle Rzepka both pulled down individual championships while Jimmie Heath and Katarina Busljeta had runnerup finishes for McNeese State during the final day of the Southland Conference track and field meet here Monday.

The efforts by the athletes helped the Cowboys finish in seventh place in the team standings with 64 points while the Cowgirls placed 10th with 40 points. Both point totals were more than the teams produced a year ago.

The Cowboys had finished with 71 points and a tie for fifth place at the end of the meet. But a protest had been filed and was upheld and the Cowboys lost a second place awarded to Damien Bateman in the 5000 meters. The ruling was that Bateman and teammate Barry Hill were illegally pacing during the run.

"I don't know what happen," said Cowboy head coach Ty Sevin, "but the protests were upheld and those second place points were taken away."

But, Sevin said, "I am really proud of the way this team competed in this meet. Everyone stepped up big. I think that Michelle set a meet record (she did) and we had many with personal bests and several more qualified for the NCAA regionals.

"It was a total difference here today with the way we came off the track compared to the way we came off the track a year ago?.like night and day."

Sam Houston took the men's title with 169 points while UT San Antonio had 132, UT Arlington 111, Stephen F. Austin 90, Texas State 71, Southeastern Louisiana 70, McNeese 64, Northwestern State 48, Louisiana-Monroe 37 and Lamar 24. Sam Houston also won the women's crown with 164 points and was followed by Texas State 135, SFA 101.5, UT San Antonio 85, UT Arlington 68, Lamar 63, Northwestern State 58, Southeastern La. 52.5, Louisiana-Monroe 44, McNeese 40 and Nicholls State eight.

Brown claimed his title in the men's triple jump with a career best 49-4 1/2 leap while Rzepka won the women's pole vault at 12-11 1/2, breaking the meet record of 12-9 1/2 that had been set in 2004.

Earlier in the meet Brown had also tied for second in the high jump and finished third in the long jump to score a total of 23 points.

The win made it the second straight conference title in a different conference for Rzepka. She had won the Big 10 pole vault title a year ago while attending Michigan State.

Heath battled his way back from injury to take second in the men's pole vault, going 17-0 3/4. He had entered the competition with a league best 18-0 1/2 but had missed the past five weeks due to a fracture in his wrist. Sam Houston State's Matt Adkisson won the crown with a vault of 17-6 1/2.

Busljeta, a freshman, finished second in the women's discus at 154-6.

Other athletes scoring points for the Cowboys in the meet were Devin Rodriguez with a career best 16-6 3/4 for fifth in the pole vault and a NCAA berth, Jan Bicanic with a 153-9 effort for seventh in the discus, Marcus Brown with a 47-5 1/4 leap for seventh in the triple jump, Hill with a 4:00.88 clocking for third in the 1500 meters and Nicholas Kay with an eighth place in the 5000 meters.

The Cowboy 4x100 meter relay team had trouble with an exchange and did not finish while Quinten Lawrence false started in his bid to earn points in the 100 meter dash.

Sonia Clark scored the other points for the Cowgirls on Monday as she finished third in the 1500 meters at 4:41.77 and was sixth in the 5000 meters at 17:48.04.