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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 26, 2004 Raider track off to NAIA nationals By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings If the 5 a.m. departure to Louisville, Ky., didn't take too much out of the 15 Raiders tracksters who qualified for the NAIA national track and field championships, Southern Oregon University could soon be returning home with one of its best showings at nationals to date. In 2003 the Raiders boasted two All-Americans as both the men's and women's teams placed in the latter half of the the point-scoring teams. As it stands this year, three individual athletes and a relay team are ranked in the top-10 in their respective events. Athletes must finish in the top-six to garner All-American status. Junior triple jumper Nick Hanson may be a dark horse contender for the national title. Hanson, the Cascade Conference champion in the event, ranks fifth in the nation with his 49-5 personal record. The top-eight entrants in the men's triple jump are separated by just 17 inches. Junior Sean Peterson holds the school record in the 1,500 meters at 3:51.81, a time that pushes him to the No. 8 seed going into the race. Peterson cruised to victory in the event at the league championship meet. Teammate junior Trevor Palmer trails him by seconds with his 3:53.66 split and No. 11 seed. Red-shirt freshman Travis Wheeler, a two-time winner at the Cascade Conference Championships, rounds out Southern's best opportunities to score All-American status. Wheeler earned a trip to the season-culminating showcase at the Last-Chance Meet on May 14 when he hurled the discus 162-8 1/2. The mark breaks into the top-10 in the nation, placing Wheeler ninth heading into this weekend's national championship. A Raiders relay team also has All-American hopes. The men's 4x800-meter squad has the seventh-fastest time in the NAIA. Jeff Olson, Dusty Waugh, Ross Dexter and Palmer zoomed to a school-record 7:45 for the two-mile jaunt, though Dexter will miss nationals due to a foot injury. Peterson, like Palmer, will balance two events in Louisville when he replaces Dexter on the team. Ryan Pfeil, a sophomore cross country all-star, enters the 10,000 meters seeded 15th with his 32:09.06 clip, while Tyler Nitzke rates 17th in the 400-meter dash at 48.30. Bart Maney rounds out the Raider men's contingent with his 27th-place seed in the 100 meters (10.80). For the women, senior All-American Megan Heuberger aims to mirror her 2002 fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. She enters the event in 10th place with a season-best 1:03.17 and will also run legs on the women's 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relay teams. The short relay squad ranks 12th, while the mile relay team is 16th. Fellow senior sprinter Andrea Eide, who broke the school record in the 100 meters this year with her 12.17 effort, will compete on the two female relays in addition to trying to crack into the top-six in the 100-meter spring. She sits in the No. 17 position entering the meet. Other female performers include Brook Jaentsch in the high jump (25th at 5-4) and cross country All-American and school record-holder Brynn Cogdill in the 1,500 meters (15th, 4:44.60). DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams