The schedule of the Illinois State track and field team recently went through a major overall, meaning the Redbirds will be in three different places this weekend.
Originally scheduled to participate in the Vanderbilt Invite, the Redbirds will split up and attend the Mt. San Antonio Relays in Walnut, Calif., the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., and the Lee Calhoun Memorial in Macomb. Junior middle distance runner Dan Tripp will be the only athlete traveling to California along with assistant coach Chris Bailey, while assistant Brent Chumbley and head coach Elvis Forde will take a group to Tennessee. The rest of the team will head to Macomb with assistants Aaron Decker and LaShawna Mapp.
Tripp, who is leading the Missouri Valley Conference in the 1,500-meter run this season, will look to improve on his time of 3:52.11 on Friday evening. Forde wanted to give the junior from Belleville, Ontario, Canada the chance to run against some of the top competition in the country.
Dans performed well enough throughout the course of the year, but hasnt really been faced with a big challenge so far, Forde said. We feel like we needed to give him a chance to qualify for the regional meet against top competition before the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
The Sea Ray Relays, which will take part Friday and Saturday, is also a chance for Redbird athletes to compete against top competition and Forde feels that his team will rise to the occasion. The Redbirds will likely have competitors in every sprinting event on the womens side, as well as a select group of middle distance events, and relay events such as the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400.
Things change sometimes and you have to be prepared, Forde said. The Vanderbilt meet fell through, but we still wanted to give some of our athletes, particularly on the womens side, a chance to compete against top competition. This is going to be a very good test.
The Redbirds already have seven athletes between the mens and womens team whove qualified for the NCAA Mid-East Regional May 27-28. They include Brian Krantz (hammer), Rhett Hillard (shot put), Laura Kennedy (3,000 steeplechase) and the 4x100-meter relay team of Cherise Devers, Lian Lucas, Lindsey Arnold and Lyn Cox. With the amount of competition taking place this weekend, the Redbirds will look to add to their list of qualifiers.
The conference championships are coming up quickly, Forde said. Its better to get as many qualifiers out of the way before the conference meet. This way, the focus can be on winning a conference championship.
