Jan. 28, 2002

Indianapolis, Indiana - University of Illinois at Chicago track and field coach Jim Knoedel continues to be impressed with the improvement that both the men's and women's squad have displayed in the early stages of the indoor season.

So impressed that Knoedel believes that there is a good opportunity for the Flames to bring home some hardware at the Horizon League Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Knoedel's opinion was only strengthened by the Flames' performance at the Smith-Barney Invitational hosted by Butler on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Jenni Goebel captured the 5,000-meter run title with a personal-best mark of 17:51.62. Her nearest competitor finished seven seconds behind.

"I was very pleased with Jenni's performance," Knoedel said. "She should be one of the top athletes in the conference."

Freshman Sara O'Mara broke the school-record in the weight-throw for the second consecutive week as she placed fourth overall with a toss of 43-feet, 11 ¼ inches.

On the men's side, freshman Whitney Burns turned in a personal-best mark of 1:55.97 for a sixth-place finish in the 800-meter run.

Knoedel also received personal bests from both junior Joe Marren (4:15.12) and senior Rich Daubert (4:16.59) in the mile-run.

"Overall, I couldn't be more happy," Knoedel said. "If we continue to improve week-by-week, we should come home with a lot of awards"