New Orleans - The Tulane Green Wave women's indoor track & field team will look to build upon their solid outing last week at the Leonard Hilton Invitational with an even better performance this Friday afternoon when the team returns to action at the 2010 Purple Tiger Invitational at the Carl Maddox Field House in Baton Rouge, La.
The Purple Tiger Invitational is hosted by LSU and will open with the field events at Noon (CT) followed by the first events on the track beginning at 5 p.m.
"We are pleased with the way we started at the University of Houston last weekend," Tulane head coach Eric Peterson said. "This week is a meet where we are working through as a team because we are building toward another team scoring competition in Pennsylvania during the first weekend in February so we are asking a lot of our student-athletes to work on specific techniques and really develop more sound mechanics in the way they perform. The level of competition will increase from now until later in February so we need to be ready."
Twenty-three Green Wave sprinters, mid-distance, long distance and field event participants will be in action. In the field events, freshman Jane Ball will throw the shot and the weight, while senior Arielle Minor and sophomoreAna Ruzevic will throw the shot only. Sophomore Raquelle Collins, junior Brree Carter and sophomore Kelly Curtis will look for new bests in the long jump, while junior Zandria Debowles will attempt to extend her vertical in the high jump. Senior Nicollete Taku will participate in the triple jump and freshman Kelsey Moran will take part in the pole vault event.
Last week, Moran posted the third-best finish in school history in the pole vault when she cleared 2.50 meters, while Curtis recorded the 10th-best score of all time in the shot put with a throw of 8.50 meters.
"Our multi-events athletes such as Kelly Curtis and Arielle Minor are doing several events this weekend to help prepare themselves for their first pentathlon which will take place in two weeks. Everyone else for the most part is still working on their own individual skills and development," Peterson said.
In the running events, Tulane will feature six sprinters in the 60-meter dash, including senior Olivia Kizzee, sophomore Kasey Rodgers, freshmen Jerica Banks, Jamie Riles and Tiffany Smith and junior Aieshia Brooks. Last week, Kizzee and Rogers each turned in top times, including Kizzee in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7:51, which ranks second all time, while she also registered the eight-best time in the 200-meters with a time of 25:02.
"We are very excited about senior Olivia Kizzee, who is coming off a victory last weekend in the 200-meters and also running a life-time best in the 60-meter dash. Kasey Rodgers had a really good preliminary performance in the 60 meters and she will look to build on that. We're are really excited about some of our freshman on the team such as Jamie Riles, who finished high last week in the 200 meters during her first college meet and now she'll drop down to the 60 meters this week. She has a lot of talent and ability," Peterson said.
Minor and Curtis will join the duo of freshman Adiyah Crute and junior Raquelle Collins in the 60-meter hurdles, while junior Rebecca Coady and the sophomore tandem of Jessica Gallagher and Annette Glaz will look to tame the mile run.
A week ago, Collins and Crute were outstanding in the hurdles with Collins logging the third-best time of 9:70 while Crute was right behind her teammate in fourth place with a time of 9:79.
Later in the meet, Coady and Glaz will join sophomore Johanna Gretschel and junior Caitlin Hornbeck in the 3,000-meter run. Last week, Gretschel turned in a time of 5:08.33 in the mile run, which was the ninth best time in the school annals.
Finally, the Green Wave will run a pair of teams in the 4x400-relay event.
A revised schedule, meet performance lists and with parking details for this the indoor track and field meets scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Carl Maddox Field House are available at the top of the page.