Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Track and Field	Women's Track and Field SIUE Athletics

March 12, 2007 SIUE Places Sixth at Indoor Nationals         The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women's track and field team placed a best-ever sixth at the NCAA Division II Indoor nationals and finished with eight student-athletes receiving All-American honors.         "All of our kids did a wonderful job this weekend. Sixth place at Division II Nationals is the highest that SIUE has placed in school history. These national meets are always tight when it comes to scoring so every point counts. We had a couple of school records and many top performances from our athletes," said SIUE women's track and field coach Dave Astrauskas.         SIUE's 1,600-meter relay team of Angel Royston (Florissant, Mo.), Juliet Alrich (Carpentersville), Valerie Simmons (St. Louis) and Deserea Brown (Flossmoor) placed second overall which earned them All-American status with a time of 3 minutes, 42.55 seconds.         "Angel did a great job out of the blocks. Juliet ran a pretty good second leg. Valerie put SIUE in position to score very high in the event, and Deserea ran one of the fastest splits of the year," said Astrauskas. "All of these ladies did a great job and gave it their all from start to finish. This was a very exciting race at one point during the third leg SIUE was leading the race. All four of these ladies ran well in the school record-breaking race," said Astrauskas.         Simmons and Alrich both earned All-American honors a second time in their individual events.         Simmons placed sixth in the 60-meter hurdles with her school-record time of 8.76.         "Valerie posted some very nice performances this past weekend. She had been eying the school 60-meter hurdle record. I was very happy to see her have the best performance of her career in such a big meet," said Astrauskas.         Alrich placed seventh on the 400-meter dash, notching a time of 56.18.         "Juliet is only a freshman, but she performed like an upperclassman this weekend. Juliet ran two great 400-meter races and really followed her race plan," said Astrauskas.         SIUE triple jumper Christine Butler (Matteson) earned All-American honors with her jump of 12.50 meters (41 feet, 0.25 inches).         "Christine had a great series of jumps in the triple jump, and she broke her own school record. She is a veteran who has accomplished a lot in the triple jump at national meets over the years," said Astrauskas.         Thrower Callie Glover (Bartlett) was another Cougar to reach All-American status with her sixth-place finish. She recorded a throw of 17.43 meters (57 feet and 2.25 inches) on her third attempt.         "It was apparent that Callie had been in these meets before because her first throw of the competition would have earned All-American honors," said Astrauskas.         After placing second with the 1,600-meter relay team Royston just placed out of earning All-American honors in the 400-meter dash. Her time of 56.93 put her 0.74 seconds behind the eighth-place finisher.         "Angel had a good weekend and ran a real nice race in the qualifying rounds. In the first 400-meter dash finals of her career, she fell behind a little and had a tough time catching up," said Astrauskas.         Brown another member of the 1,600 relay team missed out on a high finish with an injury.         "Dez (Brown) had a slight injury on her plant leg which affected her performance a little. I was happy to see her clear the first height on her first jump of the competition. The women's high jump was very strong this year, and Deserea would have had to have had a big personal record in order to place," said Astrauskas.         The SIUE women's track and field team will start its outdoor season Mar. 31 at the Missouri Relays in Columbia, Mo.                 -siue cougars-