Illinois State track and field head coach Elvis Forde hopes that if only one thing is going to happen with his mens and womens teams this weekend at the 2003 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships it is using the familiarity of the competition environment to an advantage since the meet will be held in Horton Field House in Normal, Ill., on Feb. 28-March 1.
I am going to hope that our familiarity with the environment makes a big difference for us, Forde said. Because the track is a little bit different because of the smallness of the curves in the field house, a lot of times teams dont compete on smaller tracks so we have a little advantage and I hope that plays into our hands. However, we will still need to compete hard just like everyone else.
One of the main reasons the mens team will need to compete hard is because of a fifth-place finish in the 2003 Valley Coaches Poll. The Redbird women were picked to finish second while SMS was the front-runner on the ladies side and Northern Iowa was picked first for the men. SMS has won three of the last five indoor meets while UNI is the defending champion in both genders.
I think that anytime you get a coaches poll it is nice to see what other coaches think but it was truly a surprise to see where the men were picked, Forde said. We look at it as having to fight for one of the top three spots. I think the girls are a good second-place team but in my opinion, we are a championship team and we are looking forward to proving that.
I am forever optimistic and feel we are a strong championship-quality team on both the mens and womens sides and given the fact that we are at home, I hope we have the desire to compete like champions.
The Redbirds as well as the rest of the Valley schools participating in the meet will get their first chance to compete at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 28 with the field events beginning. Preliminaries in the running events begin at 4:35 p.m. The remainder of the action resumes on Sat., March 1 at 11 a.m. and the meet concludes with the 4x400 relays at 2:55 p.m.
While most of the final running events are scheduled for Saturday, Forde believes that the meet matters the most on Friday.
We must run the preliminaries on Friday as though they are finals, Forde said. It is necessary to qualify as many people as possible for Saturday and our focus is on advancing as many athletes as we can.
We will need some strong performances in the 60-meter hurdles and dash on the womens side and the jumps, Forde continued. I think the distance is solid for both men and women but it is the sprints that we are going to need some major contributions from.
Senior Jen Klostermann currently has the best time in the Valley in the 800 meters while on the mens side, Gergely Bata is tops in the high jump. Also for the women is Lauren Maul who boasts first place in the long jump.
Rounding out the coaches poll on the womens side was Northern Iowa coming in third, Indiana State sitting fourth, Southern Illinois, Wichita State, Drake and Bradley in eighth. For the men, Wichita State was second, Indiana State was third, Southern Illinois at fourth above the Birds and SMS and Drake finishing up the poll.
Results for the track and field meet will be available on www.redbirds.org immediately following each days events.
