According to Illinois State track and field head coach Elvis Forde, when teams head outdoors, its a completely different season.
The Vanderbilt Early Season Invite in Nashville, Tenn., caps off a week of Spring Break training for the Redbird track and field team. The event kicks off at 10 a.m., and will be the first official outdoor competition in 2005. Forde is eager to get his team ready for the upcoming season.
Weve had a good week of training so far, but the weather has not cooperated, Forde said. Well take the time this week to find out a lot about our athletes and go from there.
For the Redbird women, the sprints will again be a deep unit, with Lyn Cox returning after taking home conference titles in both the 60 and 200-meter dashes during the indoor season. In addition, Lian Lucas will look to duplicate her success from last years outdoor season, where she qualified for the finals in the 100-meter dash at the 2004 NCAA Mideast Regional.
Andrea Mosher also returns, along with Lindsey Arnold after strong performances in the 400 earned them all-conference honors at the conference championships during the indoor season. Laura Kennedy is back for her final season as a Redbird,coming off a third place finish in the 5,000.
The biggest return for the Redbird women is Lauren Maul, who tore her ACL during the 2004 indoor season and has not competed since then. Forde sees Maul scoring points in a number of hurdles and jumping events.
Lauren Maul coming back is a real bright spot, Forde said. I really expect her to score for us and Im confident that a number of our other women will step up like they did during the indoor season.
On the mens side, Rhett Hillard will close out his stellar career as a Redbird, looking to win a second straight conference championship in the outdoor shot put after winning last season with a throw of 57-4 3/4. Hillard was the only male athlete to win a conference title during the 2005 indoor season, winning the shot put.
The distance squad returns a group of veterans who are fresh off four all-conference performances during the indoor season. Junior Jeremy Doherty, along with junior Dan Tripp and sophomore Joe Marcin, teamed up with sprinter DeAndre Tillman in the distance medley relay where they took second at the conference meet. Tripp also finished second in the mile, while junior Bronco Meeks finished second in the 800. Freshman Geoff Houtman was third in the 800 in his first MVC Championship.
The throws will be strong not only with Hillard, Mark Jackson and Brian Krantz, but the addition of Murray State transfer Derek Sargent to the javelin is another plus.
We pick up Derek for the outdoor season and he is a very talented javelin thrower, Forde said. Hes going to score some points for us in that event.
