Track & Field May 03, 2008 USF

Four Bulls Earn All-Conf. at B.E. Meet

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. - - Through day one of the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships at the Jumbo Elliott Track on the campus of Villanova, the University of South Florida men's track and field team recorded 30 points and sits in fifth place.

“We talked about improving on last year's performance and that's what they came out and did,” said head coach Warren Bye. “We have a lot of track meet left, but overall I liked everybody's attitude out there and they came to win. I'm proud of the team and the coaches did a good job of preparing the kids to get ready.

Sophomore Mikese Morse highlighted the Bulls' day when he broke his own all-time school record in the long jump with a leap of 7.81m (25'7.5”) en route to winning the BIG EAST Championship.

“It was a little cold outside so I had to make some adjustments but overall my adrenaline for the championships had me pumped up this year,” said Morse. “It feels good to know I competed as well as I know I can.”

Morse becomes USF's first ever BIG EAST conference champion in the school's three year tenure since coming over from Conference USA.

“We got our first BIG EAST champion so that's always a good thing,” said Bye. “He broke the school record and qualified for the Olympic Trials, so that was nice.”

Morse earned an all-conference award and hopes to add another tomorrow when he competes in the triple jump.

Also earning all-conference status was Tyler Perkins in the discus throw. Perkins set his personal record with a heave of 53.28m (174'10”) that slotted him in second place in the event.

“I felt like I had a pretty good day,” said Perkins. “I actually had a really good weekend of practice and that is probably why I set my personal record.”

Perkins' performance topped his previous best (173'3”) that came earlier this season at the SDSU Aztec Invitational. He also holds down the school's second-best discus throw of all-time and sits behind only Robert Fennell's 2004 mark of 175'8”.

Glenn Fowler continued the Bulls' success by tying his personal best in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.28. Fowler's trial time finish was fast enough to qualify for tomorrow's final.

Fowler also qualified for the 400-meter hurdles final after running a 52.01 time that is just one-hundredth of a second behind the day's preliminaries leader.

Carlan Arthur, a junior from Trinidad and Tobago, crossed the line in the 800-meters trials after 1:50.89. In his final conference meet of his collegiate career, he set his personal best time and by doing so, earned the right to run tomorrow for a spot on the podium. In addition, Arthur moves up one spot to fourth place on the USF all-time charts.

“I liked his strategy and the way he finished it out,” said Bye. “He had to make a couple moves there at the end but he ran a really smart race.”

In the final event of day one, the high jump, Brian Zipler gave the Bulls an exciting conclusion to the day when he set his personal record of 2.07m (6'9.5”) to take third place and all-conference honors.

“It was probably one of the most exciting high jumps I've ever had,” said Zipler. “I think everything came together at the end of the season just right and everything was straightened out and ready to go.”

Teammate Michael Kursteiner was in fifth place in the competition to also reel in all-conference recognition.

Tomorrow will wrap up the third and final day of the BIG EAST Outdoors and USF is looking for a strong finish. The team will compete in the pole vault and the triple jump to round out the weekend's field events. On the track, several Bulls will run in the finals of their respective events along with the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.