JONESBORO (12/1/07) ? Arkansas State head track and field coach Lon Badeaux saw pretty much what he expected in the first indoor meet of the season at ASU's 19th Annual Kickoff Klassic Saturday at the Convocation Center.
“I saw a lot of good and I saw a lot of bad today and that's pretty much what I thought it would be like,” said Badeaux who is in his first year as ASU's chief. “One of the points of this meet is to see where we are, and I know that we will get better over the next three months.”
ASU and 12 additional schools competed in the non-scoring meet, including Memphis, Mississippi, Southeast Missouri State, Harding, Lincoln, Lindenwood, Mississippi College, Arkansas-Little Rock, Central Arkansas, Rhodes, Tulane, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
ASU posted two first-place wins when senior jumper Kristiina Alatalo won the women's triple jump with a leap of 37-8 and Michael Miller posted a time of 1:56.35 in the men's 800-meter run. Jeremy Willis, redshirted a year ago, was second in the pole vault with 16-feet.
“Miller looked really good in his 800 race,” continued Badeaux. “Willis came in second, but he was the top collegian in the vault and Kristiina had the best opening meet ever for her.”
Several new faces on the Indians' roster also did well including freshman Erica Naeger who set a personal best twice in the pole vault before finishing fourth overall with 11-4. Another freshman, Jennifer Day jumped 10-6 for sixth.
“Bryant Hankton improved by six feet in the weight throw,” said Badeaux. “That was a nice surprise and he may be a factor in the Sun Belt Championships. And, I am impressed with our men's 400-meter runners Michael Proctor, Ray Henderson, and Tarius Moss. They ran tough races and then came back to run strong legs in the relays.”
In other results, Rob Gulliver ran 4:39.16 in the mile run along with Henry Ndichu's 4:41.25. Nathan Mattox ran 4:56.93. In the 800, Derell Pigram clocked 1:58.10 and Johnathan Martin turned in a time of 2:12.91. Corey Jackson ran a time of 6.74 in the preliminary races of the 55-meter dash.
Senior hurdler Kazmere Hill turned in a prelim time of 7.64 in the 55-meter hurdles and came back in the finals to finish sixth in 7.89. Joining Hill in the prelims were Matt Vining (8.28), B.J. Parish (8.39), Christian Gross (8.42) and Anthony Dotson (8.53).
ASU's 4x400-meter relay squad of Proctor, Henderson, Hill and Miller came in third with a time of 3:21.12 and the distance medley foursome of Mattox, Parish, Gulliver, and Terell Pigram finished second in 11:49.55. In the long jump, Yury Prisyagin was seventh with 22-0 1/4 and fifth in the triple jump with 46-10 3/4.
For the women, Staci Papageorge came in sixth in the women's 3,000-meter run in 10:58.80 and Caitlin Winey was seventh with 8.49 in the 55-meter hurdles. Mary Edwards, Winey, Candice James, and Maggie Kimani teamed up to finish second in the distance medley relay in 13:09.23. Lesly Hale tied for fifth in the high jump with 5-2 1/4.
Arkansas State returns to action Jan. 11-12 at the Wildcat Invitational hosted in Lexington, Ky., by the University of Kentucky.
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