Feb. 18, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. -
Just a week away from the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships, the Illinois State track and field teams will have one final tune-up Friday night at the EIU Friday Night Special hosted by Eastern Illinois at the Lantz Indoor Fieldhouse.
The meet will begin at approximately 2 p.m. with the women's weight throw, and action on the track will begin at 3 p.m. with the combined 5,000-meter run. The night of competition will conclude around 9:10 with the men's and women's 1,000-meter runs.
Head coach Elvis Forde will use Friday night's competition as a final evaluation period for his team before the conference meet.
"At this point, it's up to the individual to prove they are worth taking to the conference championships," Forde said. "We feel like we pretty much know who we will be taking up to Northern Iowa next weekend, but there are always three or four people we have question marks about that you want to get that last evaluation on before setting the competition roster."
The Redbirds are coming off a tough weekend of competition at the Iowa State Classic, where several of the top teams in the country competed in the three-day meet. On Friday, a pair of Redbird men's distance medley relay teams finished in the top five. The team of Mat Smoody, Tyler Perna, Yosef Tewolde and Steve Regan ran to a third-place finish with a time of 9:57.35 and the quartet of Matt Mroczynski, Anthony Jacks, John Neisler and Jon Roberts placed fifth overall in a time of 9:59.72. Then on Saturday, Sade Sealy set a school mark in the 400 meter dash, Meaka Brents ran the third-fastest 60-meter time in school history and Tori Ziegler launched an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the shot put to highlight a strong day.
For many of these athletes, the upcoming weekend will be a chance to rest before the conference championships. But for others, like Kendric Smith and Tia Harvey, it will be a final chance to prepare for most important meet of the indoor season.
"For a guy like Kendric, who false started last weekend, it's just another chance for him to race," Forde said. "He doesn't have to prove whether he is good enough to go on the travel roster to Iowa, but this meet will allow him to gauge where he is at heading into the championships. For Tia, who we held out last weekend, it will give her a chance to compete in the 200 and 400 and so we can figure out where to plug her into the lineup in order us the best chance to score points."
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