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Mustang Track and Field Heads to Houston for Conference USA Indoor Championships

Gaelle Niare to Defend Her Indoor High Jump Title

Feb. 21, 2007

DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU women's track and field team heads to Houston for the 2007 Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Feb. 23-26, at the Bill Yeoman Field House on the campus of the University of Houston. The Mustangs look to improve on their sixth-place finish at the conclusion of last year's Conference USA Championships.

Eleven Mustang student-athletes will compete in 10 events during the three-day competition.

Senior Gaelle Niare will defend her indoor high jump title, posting a 1.81-meter jump in 2006. Coming into this weekend's competition, a number of Mustangs rank in the league's top 10 individual performances. They are:
Ilyssa Pettigrew (800-meter run, 2:08.67 - 2nd)
Jessa Simmons (3000-meter run, 10:05.13 - 8th)
Rachael Forish (5,000-meter run - 17:39.72 - 5th)
Gaelle Niare (high jump, 1.84 meters - 1st)
Alesha Stegemoller (high jump, 1.73 meters - T2nd)
Gaelle Niare (long jump, 5.81 meters - 9th)
Gaelle Niare (shot put, 13.59 meters - 4th)
and the quartet of Ilyssa Pettigrew, Nnenna Ejesieme, Chelsea Wells and Jessica Jackson(distance medley relay, 11:55.98 - 2nd)

Nice to see the gals in first place after Day 1. Curious as to why we don't have a deeper team, like some sprinters. Do we only concentrate on ertain aspects of Track and Field?

Coach Wollman likes to focus on the Field side of it, especially throws, since that is his specialty. We have a distances/cross-country coach, hence the distance runners. However, with a limited budget it is difficult to develop sprinters and that is why we don't have sprinters.

How did Mens Track do? Oh, never mind.

Bergermeister wrote:How did Mens Track do? Oh, never mind.

You don't want to know...

My question is since we dropped men's track why is womens track on a limited budget (a rhetorical question). In any event, it would be great to see a world class women's track program at SMU that includes all disciplines (a men's program would be great as wel and especially so since it would favorably impact football). Other reasons to build our Mustang Club base.

The limited budget is due to the lack of a men's team. Men's and women's track and field shared coaches while there was still a men's team. The current coaching staff unfortunately doesn't have any men's team to coach.

mustangxc wrote:The limited budget is due to the lack of a men's team. Men's and women's track and field shared coaches while there was still a men's team. The current coaching staff unfortunately doesn't have any men's team to coach.

Notwithstanding that the same coaches coached both programs, I assume the athletic department had two separate budget line items, one for men and one for women. I also assume the money budgeted for the men's program either went elsewhere in the Athletic Department or was a reduction to the Athletic Department overall budget. My thought was that it would have been nice if some of that money went to the women's track program. The money I am talking about is the money budgeted for scholarships, uniforms, shoes, other equipment, travel, etc. for the men's track program.

mustangbill67 wrote:

mustangxc wrote:The limited budget is due to the lack of a men's team. Men's and women's track and field shared coaches while there was still a men's team. The current coaching staff unfortunately doesn't have any men's team to coach.

Notwithstanding that the same coaches coached both programs, I assume the athletic department had two separate budget line items, one for men and one for women. I also assume the money budgeted for the men's program either went elsewhere in the Athletic Department or was a reduction to the Athletic Department overall budget. My thought was that it would have been nice if some of that money went to the women's track program. The money I am talking about is the money budgeted for scholarships, uniforms, shoes, other equipment, travel, etc. for the men's track program.

I'm just going to tell it like it is, the myth that we don't have enough money for a men's track program is just that, a myth. The reality is that the demise of the men's program was a result of the absolute ineptitude of the prior administration.

Whew!