Friday, March 10, 2000

NCAA Division II indoor track championships
Wildcats set to defend men’s, women’s national titles

Abilene Christian University — the reigning national champions in both men’s and women’s NCAA Division II indoor track and field — will begin defense of those titles today. The national meet begins today at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.

The Wildcats, who have won a combined 42 national track and field championships in school history, will send 10 male athletes to compete in seven individual events and the 4x400 relay, while the ACU women’s team will send seven athletes to compete in six events.

The ACU men have won four straight indoor national championships and seven overall since 1988, while the women have won seven straight and 11 overall since 1988.

The men, who won last year’s indoor championship in a runaway over St. Augustine’s, will send Gilbert Tuhabonye and Terrance Woods back to the meet to defend national championships in the 800 meters and triple jump, respectively. Jason Prann, who won the 400 meters last year at the indoor meet, didn’t make the 400-meter field this year, but will run on the Wildcats’ 4x400 relay team, which is ranked fourth in the nation going into the meet.

The Wildcats’ strength could come in the distance events where John Kemboi and Tuhabonye will run the 800. Kemboi, Tuhabonye and Alfed Rugema will run the mile, and Rugema will run the 5,000 meters.

Woods, who won the triple jump and finished sixth in the high jump at last year’s indoors, is the top-ranked high jumper and fourth-ranked triple jumper in the nation going into the meet. He high jumped 7-3 at the Kansas State Triangular in early February and triple jumped 51-1\ in the season-opening meet at Texas Tech in mid-January.

Shaka Huggins, who was third in the 55 hurdles at last year’s indoor meet, is ranked seventh in the nation going into the meet. Freshman Nic Alexander and senior Oscar Meneses, who have both recorded times of 6.30 seconds this season, will run in the 55 meters.

If the women’s team is to win its eighth straight indoor national title, they’ll have to rely on their depth in the field events because ACU qualified just one runner — hurdler Shawntel Newhouse — for the national meet.

Newhouse will be trying to win the school’s fifth straight title in the 55 hurdles. She is ranked second in the nation in the event with a time of 7.99 seconds. Her twin sister, Dawnyel Newhouse, will compete in the long jump and triple jump. She’s ranked second in the nation in the long jump (19-8¦ ). She was second in the long jump and third in the triple jump in last year’s meet.

Hillerie Shelton, a junior from Cisco, who finished second in the triple jump at last year’s meet, is ranked second in the triple jump with a season-best 40-10¤ .

Meredith Garner and Jane McNeil are entered in the women’s pole vault. Garner has the best vault in the nation by more than six inches (13-0\).

Also in the field for the Lady Wildcats will be Maresa Cadienhead in the high jump and Geraldine George in the shot put.