Jan. 12, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
After a three-week break and only one week of training under their belt, the Illinois State track and field team will host Missouri Valley Conference foe Indiana State in a dual meet on Saturday, January 14 at Horton Field House.
Throwing events are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. with preliminary running events starting at 11:15 a.m.
Head track and field coach Elvis Forde is excited for the second home meet of the season, but realizes the circumstances are a little different than from the first meet back in December.
"It's different in several ways," said Forde. "One factor is that we don't have three months of training under our belt to get going here and we want our kids to do well, but at the same time we are cautious in some regards because we've only had one week of training since the athletes have been back from break."
The first meet of the season for the Redbirds at Horton Field House was highlighted by several strong performances. Forde was impressed with Andrea Mosher in the 400-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay as well as Betsy McDonald, Kathleen Thompson and Kimberli Smudde in the middle distance events. Devon Williams and Anna Lovell also had strong showings in the sprints, running personal bests in the 60-meter dash.
On the men's side, newcomer Jeremy Johnson, the MVC Male Track Athlete of the Week for the first week of the season, took first place finishes in the 60-meter and 200-meter dash. Jeremy Doherty, Dan Tripp and Bronco Meeks also recorded top times in their respective middle-distance events.
Forde is looking forward to competing against a conference school early in the season. He believes the women will have to properly execute in their events to top the Sycamores in the scored competition.
"I think on the women's side, we will more than likely be the dominant team," said Forde. "But on the men's side they have the edge. We want to keep it as close as possible in regards to what the numbers will be in the final tally. On the men's side we need to be very competitive and on the women's side we just need to execute very well and perform the way we know we are capable of."
Indiana State's strong suit on the men's squad is their depth in the distance events, but it is the jumping events that could trouble the Redbirds.
"Indiana State is better than us when it comes to the distance running from a depth standpoint," said Forde. "We have quality middle distance and distance runners, but we have to be patient in terms of the numbers because we don't have the same numbers that they have. It'll be close in the sprints, but they'll probably handle us very well in the jumps. Hopefully we can balance out the sprints and middle distance races and pick up a victory on the men's side."
Parking for track and field patrons will be reserved on the northwest side of Hancock Stadium. Spectators may enter through Gate 2 as the doors will open at 10:00 a.m. Adult tickets are $6, youth (high school and under) and ISU student tickets are $3 and can be purchased at the gate.
