May 11, 2001

Indianapolis, Indiana - Senior Barry Somerville (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles) wanted to make his last Midwestern Collegiate Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship appearance a memorable one.

Consider the mission accomplished.

Somerville won both hurdle events and ran the anchor leg of UIC's first-place 4x400 relay team en route to being named the Outstanding Performer for the running events at IUPUI's Michael A. Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium on Thursday.

Despite Somerville's performance, UIC finished fourth overall with 69 points. UW-Milwaukee claimed its second consecutive team championship with 173 points followed by Butler (163), Detroit (144), UIC and Loyola (45).

Somerville broke both records in the hurdles events previously set by UW-Milwaukee's Nate Andrews last season. He rolled to the 110-meter hurdles title with a blazing time of 14.73 and broke Andrews' record by a second and a half in the 400-meter hurdles (53.06).

Somerville also ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 relay team that cruised to a first-place finish of 3:19.17. Other members of the relay team include junior Danny Smith (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick) and seniors Chris Stanley (Chicago, Ill./Lyons Township) and Neto Alexander (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad/Queen's Royal College).

Alexander also picked up a victory in the 200-meter dash (21.88) along with a second-place mark in the 100-meter dash (10.93).

Stanley earned a third-place finish in the 800-meter run (1:53.63) while junior Joe Kepinski (Wadsworth, Ill./Warren) finished second in the pole vault (12"6').

On the women's side, sophomore Amy Fehrman (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles) earned the lone women's title in the high jump with a height of 5-feet, 3-inches as UIC placed sixth with 24 points.

Junior Monieka Thompson (Chicago, Ill./Steinmetz) garnered a second-place finish in the 800-meter run (2:12.57) while the 4x400 relay team set a new school record with a time of 3:59.85.

UW-Milwaukee won the overall title with 204 points followed by Detroit (179), Loyola (106), Butler (67), Wright State (34) and UIC.

UIC will be back in action next Friday at the Keeler Invitational at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.