Panthers Set To Defend League Indoor Crown
Horizon League Indoor Championships Feb. 24-25, 2007 • Ann Arbor, Mich. • 4 p.m. MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Feb. 21, 2007) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's track and field team travels to Ann Arbor, Mich., this weekend for the 2007 Horizon League Indoor Championships. The Panthers are the defending indoor champions and will be going for their first indoor repeat since 2000-2001 and first repeat since three-straight outdoor crowns from 2001-2003. The meet gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m. with the multi-events at the University of Michigan Indoor Track Building. Action continues Sunday, also at 9 a.m. UWM is coming off a perfect 2-0 record at last Friday's UWM Double Dual, topping league foes Loyola and UIC. Junior Amber Curtis paced the effort, winning both the weight throw and shot put and breaking her own school weight throw record. Meanwhile, sophomore Kicha Cary posted the second-best long jump in school history in adding another of the Panthers' 10 wins on the night. Milwaukee heads into this weekend's league championships as the defending indoor champions. The team won nine events in winning its first league title since sweeping the 2003 indoor and outdoor meets. Four league champions from a year ago will be competing in Michigan, including senior Timeka Walker, who won the 60m and 200m, sophomore Jenni Saarinen, last year's pentathlon champ, and junior Angie Huebner, who won the 5000m. History is on the side of the Panthers, as they have finished below second at the Horizon League's indoor championship meet just one time since 1997. UWM has won four titles and posted six second-place finishes in that time This year's squad appears poised for the repeat, as Milwaukee athletes lead the league in nine events entering this weekend. No other school tops more than three events. Walker has led the way in the 60m and 200m, while freshmen Kelsey Conrad (400m) and Laura Ring (800m) also have league-best times in running events. Curtis heads the shot put chart, while sophomore jumpers Cary (long) and Beth Zimmerman (triple) have put together outstanding seasons. Freshman Erin Havener is also tops in the pole vault. Curtis has been the latest Panther to break a school record, doing so for the second-straight meet. Her throw of 48-7 ½ in the weight throw broke her school record of 45-9 established a week prior in her first meet at UWM. Saarinen has also broken a school record of her own, tallying 3,688 points in the pentathlon at the Iowa State Cyclone Classic. While breaking her old record of 3,469 set at the 2006 league championships, she also fell just 12 points shy of the NCAA Provisional mark. Zimmerman rounds out Milwaukee's record-breakers from earlier this season. She has posted five wins over the long and triple jump events and also broke the triple jump record twice. The first instance was at the UW-Whitewater Invite, where she leapt 38-2 ¾, and then again at the Madison Elite Invitational with a jump of 39-0 ½. Cary, who made an attempt on the long jump record with her distance of 19-3 ½ last weekend, momentarily held the triple jump record when she leapt 38-8 ¾, also at Madison. Despite their competing at the league meet this weekend, the season is not over for the Panthers. Select athletes will compete at the Alex Wilson Invitational, March 2-3, in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championships, March 9-10, in Fayetteville, Ark. The outdoor season starts March 24 at the Southern Illinois Invitational.
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