University of Memphis Athletics
Motivated Tigers Travel to SIU McDonald's Invitational
Feb 04, 2010 | Women's Track and Field
Feb. 4, 2010
Memphis, Tenn. - The University of Memphis track and field teams return to competition at the Southern Illinois University McDonald’s Invitational in Carbondale, Ill., slated for Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4.
“Any meet that we go to is an important meet, but this is a meet we are experimenting a little bit with several of our 400m guys stepping up to the 800m,” head coach Kevin Robinson said. “Nick Harold and Stephan Ender are going to run their first 800m of the year and that will give us an idea of where they are at. Nick is coming off a slight groin strain and Stephan having a lot of success in the 400m. Jerome Leslie will rejoin us this week in the jumps and he has been sorely missed. We are very excited to compete. We are just a little bit beat up from not having a break at all. At the same time, we are hungry and motivated and we will look to do the best we can and use this meet as another step forward toward the conference championship.”
Friday's events include both men's and women's weight throw, long jump and pole vault events beginning around 4:00 p.m. Saturday's field events start at 10:00 a.m. and include men's and women's shot put, triple jump and high jump. At 10:30 a.m., the running events commence with the men's and women's 60m dash and 60m hurdle preliminary heats followed by the mile and the 60m dash and 60m hurdle finals.
The middle distance events will follow with the 400m dash and 800m run. The 200m dash finals and the 3000m run are the last individual running events of the meet. The meet's conclusion is marked with the running of the women's and men's 4x400m relay.
“Breiuc (Vandaleene) and Edwin (Kipkorir) will step up to the 3k for the first time this year and Jacob (Chapman) and Jorgen (Ekdahl) will sit this weekend to rest,” Robinson said. “Kayleigh (Brown) we expect will continue to improve in her events.”
Last weekend at the Rod McCravy Invitational at the University of Kentucky several Memphis athletes performed well, headlined by reigning C-USA Indoor Male Athlete of the Week Steffen Nerdal, Karlis Pujats’ second-straight school record in the men’s pole vault and Deneen Kirks’ second place finish in the long jump.
“Steffen (Nerdal) will rest this weekend because he needs a break to regroup and regain some of his mental clarity,” Robinson said. “I feel like Deneen (Kirk) is really close to a really big long jump. I also look for the vaulters to continue to improve. Obviously, Karlis (Pujats) has done a great job this year, as has Nate Arnold. I look for Lauren (Gale) and Alyssa (Northcutt) to step up and continue to improve this weekend as well.”
This is the Tigers fourth meet of the 2009-10 indoor season. Following this weekend's competition at the SIU McDonald's meet, Memphis heads to Bloomington, Ind. to compete in the Hoosier Hills Invitational slated for Feb. 12.
“This is a team scored meet,” Robinson said. “We want to do as well as we can as a team, but the team scoring is not our driving force. It is too early in the season for us to put everything on the track in every event. Like I said, we are experimenting a little bit with some of the guys. We know they can run certain events very well, but we are going to see where they can help the team down the road. In terms of the team scoring, we are going to do the best we can because we want to win the conference meet in a few weeks.”
Players Mentioned
