March 7, 1999

Indianpolis, Indiana - Missouri junior Derrick Peterson won the men's 800m national championship at the RCA Dome Saturday. The three-time all-American finished in 1:45.88, a full two seconds below the previous school record, also held by Peterson, and only a fraction of a second off the collegiate mark at 800m. Peterson, who was last year's national runner-up in the event, became Missouri's third indoor track national champion and the school's first since 1989 when Natasha Kaiser won the women's 400m event at the national meet.

In the women's 800m, Missouri sophomore Ashley Wysong, earned her first all-America honor by finishing sixth with a time of 2:06.90. In her preliminary heat, Wysong qualified for the final by posting a 2:06.59 mark, a new Missouri school record in the event.

Peterson and Wysong are the 49th and 50th all-Americans in Missouri track history and are the 25th and 26th all-Americans during the tenure of head coach Rick McGuire. During decade of the 1990's Missouri athletes have now earned all-American status indoors every year except 1991.