Southern Illinois has always had a deep and strong throwing squad. Brittany Riley threw a world record of 25.56m while wearing the Saluki singlet in 2007. Jeneva McCall has been among the top collegiate throwers since last year. And now another thrower from Southern Illinois has made it to the upper echelon: Gwen Berry. Gwen Berry has gradually been coming onto the national scene in the weight throw. She improved nearly a meter last season to 20.48m, but fouled out at nationals. Outdoors, she placed fourth, and she's been improving steadily indoors. This weekend, she threw a five foot personal best of 22.71m to take the NCAA lead (currently second in the world) and beat both McCall and two-time defending NCAA champion D'Ana McCarty (Louisville). And to top it all off, Berry showed impressive consistency. She had three attempts over 22m, and five attempts over 21.50m.

McCall was also very strong in her second place finish and nearly broke 22m for the second straight week. McCarty ended up in a disappointing third place. She had entered the meet with a nine meet win streak dating back to the start of last season. However, she only managed three legal attempts and all were in the mid-20 meter range.

On the men's side, defending NCAA champion Walter Henning (LSU) made his debut at the LSU/Texas A&M dual meet. Henning, who was likely training through the meet, posted an NCAA leading mark of 22.04m before passing on his final three attempts. His best from last season is 23.80m. K.P. Singh (Oklahoma) also opened up his season with a personal best of 21.20m.

In the professional ranks, Libor Charfreitag posted a world leading mark on Saturday. The current European champion and former NCAA champion from SMU threw 24.51m at the University of Oklahoma. After the meet he told Alfonz Juck of EME News that "I think there is room for improvement. I just need more competition, here we were only very few. But technically I m feeling it is going better and better." He is currently ranked second all-time in the event with a personal best of 25.68m set back in 2005.

Collegiate Men's Weight Throw  
========================================================================== 
    Name                    Year School                  Result            
==========================================================================
  1 Walter Henning            SR LSU                     22.04m   72-03.75
  2 K.P. Singh                SR Oklahoma                21.20m   69-02.75
  3 Davis Fraker              FR Illinois                20.78m   68-02.25
  4 Ryan Loughney             JR Ashland (D2)            20.75m   68-01.00
  5 Michael Lauro             JR LSU                     20.45m   67-01.25
  6 Mike Zajac                SR South Carolina          20.45m   67-01.25
  7 J.C. Lambert              JR Southern Illinois       20.42m   67-00.00
  8 Matt Pfleger              SR Kent State              20.16m   66-01.75
  9 Matt McHugh               SR Illinois                20.06m   65-09.75
 10 Ben Bishop                SR SIU-Edwardsville        19.99m   65-07.00
 11 Max Mays                  JR Ohio State              19.85m   65-01.50
 12 Mike Jeffery              SR Ashland (D2)            19.81m   65-00.00
 13 Patrick Onye              SO Indiana                 19.68m   64-07.00
 14 Trevor Krachir            JR Boise State             19.68m   64-07.00
 15 Richard Quick             SO Ashland (D2)            19.67m   64-06.50
 16 Drew Frizzell             SR Central Missouri (D2)   19.52m   64-00.50	
 17 Micah Hegerle             SO Minnesota               19.45m   63-09.75
 18 Sean Burns                SR South Dakota State      19.39m   64-07.50
 19 Anthony Enyi              SR Minn State-Moorhead (D2)19.36m   63-06.25
 20 Alex Padgett              SR Clemson                 19.30m   63-04.00
 21 Akil Mills                FR Illinois State          19.28m   63-03.25
 22 Pascal Tang               JR Northern Arizona        19.20m   63-00.00
 23 Matt DeChant              JR Ohio State              19.20m   63-00.00
 24 Garrett Grey              SO Ashland (D2)            19.08m   62-07.25
 25 Ross Roubion              SR LSU                     19.04m   62-05.75
 26 Joe Frye                  SR Belmont                 19.02m   62-05.00
Cutoff: 19.00m

Post Collegiate Men's Weight Throw
========================================================================== 
    Name                    Year School                  Result            
==========================================================================
  1 Libor Charfreitag            Unattached (Slovakia)   24.51m   80-05.00
  2 Jake Freeman                 NYAC/Nike (USA)         22.62m   74-02.50
  3 Jerome Bortoluzzi            Unattached (France)     22.49m   73-09.50
  4 Paul Wagner Jr.              Shore AC (USA)          20.73m  68-00.25
  5 Bryan Tolcser	             Unattached              20.44m   67-00.75
Cutoff: 19.00m

Collegiate Women's Weight Throw  
========================================================================== 
    Name                    Year School                  Result            
========================================================================== 
  1 Gwen Berry                SR Southern Illinois       22.71m   74-06.25
  2 Jeneva McCall             JR Southern Illinois       21.96m   72-00.75
  3 Felisha Johnson           SO Indiana State           20.73m   68-00.25
  4 D'Ana McCarty             SR Louisville              20.64m   67-00.25
  5 Victoria Flowers          JR Connecticut             20.19m   66-03.00
  6 Kelly Closse              JR Texas Tech              19.96m   65-06.00
  7 Chelsea Cassulo           JR UNLV                    19.71m   64-08.00
  8 Dani Bunch                FR Purdue                  19.63m   64-05.00
  9 Mallory Barnes            SR Dayton                  19.57m   64-02.50
 10 Faith Sherrill            SR Indiana                 19.52m   64-00.50
 11 Amanda Bingson            JR UNLV                    19.33m   63-05.00
 12 Holly Ozanich             SR Wisconsin-Oshkosh (D3)  19.29m   63-03.50
 13 Juliana Smith             SR Mississippi             19.13m   62-09.25
 14 Kerry Allen               SR Dayton                  18.95m   62-02.25
 15 Laishema Hampton          JR Iowa State              18.91m   62-00.50
 16 Olga Ciura                SR Southern Illinois       18.89m   61-11.75
 17 Melissa Kurzdorfer        FR Kent State              18.88m   61-11.50
 18 Brittany Smith            SO Illinois State          18.71m   61-04.75
 19 Mele Vaisima              SR Boise State             18.70m   61-04.25
 20 Laura Igaune              SR Western Kentucky        18.66m   61-02.75
 21 Patrice Gates             FR Louisville              18.60m   61-00.25
 22 Kelsey Hanley             SR Indiana State           18.46m   60-06.75
 23 Lauren Noe                JR South Florida           18.46m   60-06.75
 24 Kristen Crawford          SR Indiana                 18.45m   60-06.50
 25 Danielle Frere            JR Iowa State              18.35m   60-02.50
 26 Candace Shirley           SR Morgan State            18.31m   60-01.00
 27 Ayla Gill                 JR SMU                     18.30m   60-00.50
 28 Lawanda Henry             JR North Carolina State    18.20m   59-08.50
 29 Kristin Cameron           JR Northwood (D2)          18.17m   59-07.50
 30 Katie Sopher              SR Ashland (D2)            18.08m   59-04.00
Cutoff: 18.00m

Post Collegiate Women's Weight Throw (Americans Only)
========================================================================== 
    Name                    Year School                  Result            
==========================================================================
  1 Amanda Madden                Unattached (USA)        18.80m   61-08.25
  2 Aubrey Baxter                Unattached (USA)        18.80m   61-08.25
  3 Amanda Murphy                Unattached (USA)        18.79m   61-07.75
Cutoff: 18.00m

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