March 30, 1998
FIGHTING SCOTS WIN MONMOUTH RELAYS TRACK MEET
MONMOUTH, IL -- The Monmouth College track and field teams started their outdoor schedule in winning fashion last weekend as the Scots swept both men
's and women's divisions at the Monmouth Relays. The meet was held at Bobby Woll Athletic Field and featured entries from six other schools.Monmouth scored 217 points to crush the competition in the men
's portion of the meet with St. Ambrose (99) and Mount St. Clare (86) rounding out the top three teams. In the women's division the Fighting Scots' total of 207 points easily outdistanced St. Ambrose (158) and Knox (101) for the team victory.Senior Tennille McClure (Taylor Ridge,IL/Rockridge) and sophomore Brian Houzenga (Fulton,IL/HS) provided the main highlights of the meet as each surpassed NCAA provisional qualifying marks in their respective events. McClure
's winning toss in the women's discus of 139'9" was not only a national-qualifying effort but also established a new Monmouth Relays meet record. She had also won the shot put (39'0") earlier in the day.Houzenga, a 1998 indoor All-American in the 400 meters, blazed the 200 in 21.82 seconds to earn a provisonal berth for the NCAA Nationals. He also ran on two of the Fighting Scots
' three first-place relay teams, joining Justin Bryant (Knoxville,IL/HS), Matt Beverly (Monmouth,IL/HS) and Rich Johnson (Galesburg,IL/HS) to win both the 4x100 and 4x400 events. Bryant finished second in the 200 (22.12) and Beverly claimed the open 100m dash (11.64). The distance medley team of Tony Miles (Moline,IL/ HS), Ryan Clark (Cambridge,IL/HS), Jason Dare (Farmington,IL/HS) and Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL/HS) completed the relay sweep for Monmouth.The Scot women also won all three relay events and just missed another qualifying mark in the 4x100. Stacy Brown (Barrington,IL/Lake Zurich), Constance Jackson (Peoria,IL/ Woodruff), Heather Furrow (Kirkwood,IL/Yorkwood) and Elise Estes (Colorado Springs,CO/Sierra) ran 49.55 to miss the NCAA-provisional time by .04 seconds. Brown and Jackson teamed with Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/ Greenwood) and Angie Frick (Monmouth,IL/Yorkwood) to claim the 4x400 and the quartet of Vandergriff, Sherri Polk (St. Louis, MO/Pattonville), Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL/Prairie Central) and Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL/Illini Central) won the distance medley.
Monmouth athletes won a total of 21 of the 40 combined events on the day. Brown claimed the 100m (12.3) and Jackson raced to victory at 200m (25.73). Vandergriff
won the 800m (2:28.54) and Knauer captured the 3000m (11:25) to lead the women's middle-distance efforts and Polk won the 400m hurdles (1:12.52). Individual champions in field events included Julie Larson (Oneida,IL/ROWVA) (16'8@, women's long jump), Chris Sondgeroth (Pekin,IL/ Erie) (50'5", men's shot put), Stephenie Schuler (El Paso,IL/HS) (5'0", women's high jump), Aaron Walker (Seneca,IL/HS) (13'0", men's pole vault), Chris Ferron (Franklin Park,IL/East Leyden) (169'0", men's javelin) and Amanda Colgan (Galva,IL/HS) (122'5", women's javelin).Monmouth travels to Galesburg, Illinois next weekend for the Knox College Co-ed Invitational for its next step in defending its dual 1997 Midwest Conference outdoor team titles.
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