Men's track and field heads to Southland indoor
2/19/2008 1:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Led by Jessica Fisher, winner of both the Southland Conference 60 and 200 meter dashes last year, Sam Houston State looks to defend its league title Friday and Saturday at the 29th annual Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Bill Yeoman Sports Center on the University of Houston campus.
“If everyone performs to their capabilities, the women's trophy is ours to win,” Head Coach Curtis Collier said. “The team is excited and looking forward to the meet.”
Sam Houston State won the Southland indoor women's championship last year with a school record 135 points, 23 points ahead of runner-up Texas State-San Marcos.
Ten women who earned All-Southland Conference honors at last year's indoor meet return this year. This season, Bearkats own marks among the top three performances in the league in 11 events.
“This is the weekend the team has been pointing toward the entire indoor season,” Collier said. “We have a corps group who can put a lot of points up on the board for us. We just have to go perform.”
Fisher holds the best marks in the Southland this year in both the 60 meters (7.52) and the 200 meters (24.48). Natalia Clark, also a returning indoor individual champion in the weight throw, holds the second best mark in the SLC this year with a throw of 11 feet, 7.75 inches.
Tiffany Singleton owns the league's best 400 meter dash time this year with a 55.92 mark. Tiana Lee ranks number one in the 60 meter hurdles (8.62 seconds), Dess Meek is first in the high jump (five feet, eight inches), and the 4x400 relay of Singletary, Monika May, Desiree Taylor, and Fisher has a league top time of 3:45.36.
Fisher, Clark, Lee, Singleton, and Taylor all earned All-Southland honors last year by finishing among the top three in at least one event. Other returning All-SLC women's competitors in the meet for the Bearkats will be Shannon Brown, Ashley Casalini, Alison Ferries, Regina Offord, and Whitney Rister.
The Southland Conference indoor championships begin Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. with competition in the heptathlon and the pentathlon. Field events start at 3 p.m. with running event preliminaries at 4 p.m. Friday.
Running finals will be held Friday beginning at 1:30 p.m.
While the focus at the Southland Conference indoor meet on the women, the Sam Houston State men also will have an opportunity to make some noise.
“The men's competition is going to be very close. On paper, we could end up anywhere from third or fourth, with a perfect meet, to eighth,” Collier said.
Headliners for the men at the Southland meet will be Michael Courtney who ranks second this year in the 400 meter dash with a time of 48.50 seconds and Travis Matthews who holds the league's second best pole vault performance this winter with a mark of 16 feet, 8.75 inches.
Kevin Houston ranks fourth in the 200 meter dash (22.48) and John Thomas and Jay Newman rank fourth and fifth in the 60 meter hurdles with marks of 8.12 and 8.19 seconds, respectively.
