The Southeast Missouri Track and Field teams return for its indoor season Friday. The squads will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana to compete in the John Gartland Invitational, hosted by Indiana State University.
The meet fires off at 5 p.m. on Friday starting with the field events. The running events will start at 5:40 p.m. The meet will continue Saturday morning starting at 11 a.m.
The Redhawks will be competing against Eastern Illinois, Indiana State, Marian (Ind.), Rose-Hulman (Ind.), Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.), Valparaiso (Ind.) and Wheaton (Ill.).
Last Season
The SEMO women's squad won the OVC Championships, which was their third consecutive indoor team championship. The men finished second to Little Rock by 13.5 points.
Last Season Awards
Last season
Breanna Miles claimed the Female Track Athlete of the year for the second year in a row.
Anna Thomason was tabbed as Co-Female Athlete of the year while also winning Female Athlete of the Championships.
On the men's side,
Paden Lewis won Male Field Athlete of the year and Co-Male Athlete of the Championship.
Head coach
Eric Crumpecker also won Women's Coach of the Year, for the third straight season and the fourth time in his career.
This Year's Team
The Redhawk's women's squad returns 21 athletes from last year's squad. Highlighting the returners are senior pentathlete
Anna Thomason, junior sprinter
Brianna Dixon, graduate distance runner
Erika Mellor, senior pole vaulter
Clara Billing, senior thrower
Bailie Hux, sophomore sprinter
Alaina Lester and junior sprinter
Sydney Burdine. All of these athletes are returning OVC indoor event champions.
The team also recruited four transfers including
Liberty Blackburn and
Makayla Jones who both transferred from OVC foe Little Rock. The team also added 11 freshmen.
On the men's side they return 23 athletes from last season's team. Highlighting the returners from the men's team is
Sullivan Gleason, who the pole vault event at the OVC championships last season. Other returning runner up finishes at the OVC indoor championships last season include senior pole vaulter
Tanner Koontz, senior thrower
Quinton Maxwell, sophomore heptathlete
Luis Schadlich, and junior sprinter
Marcus Gordon Jr.
The team also recruited seven freshmen and four transfers. Included in the transfers are
Trenton Braswell, who was a two-time All-Conference thrower at the NAIA level.
The Coaches
SEMO returns all four coaches from last season. Leading the way for the 18
th season is head coach
Eric Crumpecker, and it will be his 35
th season at SEMO. Associate head coach
Ryan Lane enters his 17
th season and specializes in coaching the distance runners.
Assistant coach
Eric Fox returns for his sixth season. Fox oversees the Redhawks multi-event athletes, pole vaulters, hurdle runners and jumpers. The final assistant is
Theresa Scott, who begins her sixth season with the Redhawks. Scott coaches the Redhawk sprint and relay teams and assists with hurdle runners.
The Schedule
After this weekend's opener, SEMO will host the Redhawks Invite on Jan. 10. The Redhawks then travel to Bloomington for the Indiana Invitational on Jan. 16–17, followed by the Don DeNoon Invitational at Southern Illinois on Jan. 23.
The back half of the season features the PNC Lenny Lyles Invite at Louisville (Jan. 30–31), the Missouri Invitational (Feb. 6), the Heartland Invitational, in Indianapolis, Indiana (Feb. 13–14), and the Redhawks Open on Feb. 20.
The indoor season concludes with the OVC Indoor Championships in Louisville, Kentucky on Feb. 24–25. Qualifying athletes will compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13–14.
OVC Scholar Athlete
In the offseason,
Sullivan Gleason won the OVC Scholar Athlete award. The award is the highest individual honor that can be earned by OVC student-athletes and is given annually to three men and three women student-athletes for their accomplishments in both the classroom and athletic arena, and because of their leadership qualities.
Gleason, a native of O'Fallon, Missouri, finished third at the OVC Outdoor Championships. He also qualified for the NCAA West Regional where he finished 33
rd. He won the pole vault at three meets including the OVC Indoor Championships. He also took the title at the Billy Hayes where he set a personal best of 17' 0.25".
