OVC LANDSLIDE: WIDE VICTORY A SURPRISE

Southeast Missouri State University track and field coach Joey Haines expected his women's team to win last weekend's Ohio Valley Conference outdoor championship.

But the Otahkians' impressive performance on their way to the title surprised even Haines a bit.

The Otahkians scored 201 points to run away and hide in the 10-team field, winning by a whopping 71 points.

"We really performed well," said Haines. "Going into the meet, I had us down to score 195 points and we scored 201. Usually, if I have us down for 195, we'll score 175."

The victory capped an OVC track sweep for the Otahkians, who also won the conference's indoor meet in February.

"Winning both makes us feel very good," said Haines. "After winning the indoor, sometimes it's hard to mentally get it back for another meet two months later. But our girls didn't have any trouble with that."

Southeast's women won eight events, including both relays.

Shannon O'Dell continued to shine for the Otahkians as she won both hurdles races and led off both relay teams. Haines felt that O'Dell should have won the meet's outstanding female athlete award, but that honor went to Eastern Kentucky's Jamie King.

"I thought Shannon should have won it," Haines said. "She had an outstanding meet."

Other conference champions for the Otahkians were Heather Denihan (long jump), Heather Fisher (high jump), Denise Ford (javelin) and Yvonne Hente (400).

Joining O'Dell on the winning relay teams were Hente, Kim Stewart and Shauna Birge in the 4x100 and Stewart, Tammy Wenkel and Hente in the 4x400.

The Otahkians have had quite an OVC run in recent years, finishing second in last year's outdoor meet after winning the outdoor title in 1995.

And Haines believes that success will continue. Even though the Otahkians lose five talented seniors -- O'Dell, Fisher, Ford, Gray C. Harris and Jennifer Anderson -- they return a host of prime-time performers and will be bolstered by several talented newcomers.

"Our five seniors scored a lot of points and we'll miss them. O'Dell will be the hardest to replace because she does so many things," said Haines. "But really, we could be even better next year. We're real excited about the future."

While Southeast's men didn't fare as well as the women during the OVC outdoor meet, Haines was also extremely pleased with their third-place performance.

"Our guys also did very well," he said. "It was a rebuilding year, plus we lost some guys we were counting on. For them to get third, we were really, really happy with that."

Matt Gaylor and Randy Johnson led the way for the Indians. Gaylor won both the shot put and discus while Johnson repeated his javelin title.

"Matt had been second a lot of times because he couldn't beat (Southeast teammate) Bryan Alfultis," Haines said. "Bryan had a tough meet, but he'll be back. It was good to see Matt do what he did."

Haines also had high praise for three other members of the men's squad. They didn't win titles but Haines felt like they had breakthrough meets.

Erin Roades was third in the 10,000, Scott Tate was fifth in the 110 hurdles and former Kelly High standout Aaron Wade was fifth in the 800.

"I thought those three, who had been struggling some, really made major breakthroughs and should really be strong next season," said Haines.

Like the women, Haines will be expecting big things from the men next year because they lose only three seniors: Gaylor and pole-vaulters Chris Prescott and Tim Davis, who were second and third, respectively, in their specialty last weekend.

"We're going to get a lot better," said Haines. "I'm really excited about next year."

Of course, even though the OVC meets are now over for 1997, there is still plenty of the track season left. Southeast has several major meets to go as it attempts to quality athletes for the NCAA Division I championships.

Haines believes that both women's sprint relay teams, O'Dell in the 400 hurdles, Wenkel in the 800, Hente in the 400 and Johnson in the javelin all have a shot at reaching NCAA qualifying marks.

"The track season is still early," said Haines. "The OVC just happens to have its meet about a month earlier than it should, but we've still got a lot of meets to go."

Several Southeast athletes will compete in the prestigious Drake Relays this weekend.