NORMAL, Ill.—The Illinois State men's and women's track & field teams head east to Charleston, Illinois, to compete in its first event of the indoor season, the Eastern Illinois Early Bird Invite.
Following women's pentathlon action at 1 p.m., field events will get underway at 3 p.m., while track competition will follow at 4:10 p.m.
Illinois State will be joined in the field by Eastern Illinois, Southeast Missouri State and Western Illinois, in addition to the women's squad from Illinois.
The ISU men return All-Conference members in Chase Pavelonis and CJ Hamilton. Pavelonis finished third in the men's indoor pole vault at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships with a season-best vault of 5.00 meters (16-04.75). Hamilton narrowly missed a conference title in the indoor 800-meter, clocking a time of 1:52.56.
Senior Kevin Fisch will look to lead the Redbirds in the multi-events for 2014-15, as the Homer Glen, Illinois, native earned a sixth-place finish in the heptathlon with a new personal-best of 5,022 points. Fisch notched All-Valley honors at the MVC outdoor championships with a 6,601-point effort in the decathlon, including personal-best marks in five events.
The Redbird women return all members from the first-place DMR team, including Haley Goers, Ally Christiani, Kaley Ummel and Kelly McShea. McShea recently captured a third-place finish at the 2014 Valley cross country championships with a personal-best time of 17:10.
Jianna Williams is the only Redbird returning to the field events, after competing at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Williams was also the only athlete on the Redbirds' regional squad that competed in two events. She finished 19th to earn All-American Honorable Mention honors in the hammer throw with a toss of 57.22 meters (187-09) and  heaved a mark of 57.41m (189-04) in Arkansas at the NCAA West Preliminary Round to finish 12th to advance her to Oregon.
Last season the Redbird men's team finished fifth at the MVC Championships with 81 points, while the women notched a fourth-place finish and 68 team points.
Follow the action of the EIU Invite live on Twitter @ISU_Track_XC, or at the conclusion of the meet on www.GoRedbirds.com.
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