HAMMOND – The Southeastern track and field program hits the ground running in 2012 as the squad will be heading to a pair of indoor meets this week.
A select number of athletes will be competing Thursday and Friday in the UAB Blazer Invitational at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala. Live statistics, courtesy UAB, will be available for the UAB Blazer Invitational at LionSports.net.
The remaining members of the track and field squad will be competing Friday at the McNeese Indoor I in Lake Charles, La.
The events will be the first for Southeastern in more than a month. The Lions and Lady Lions broke one school record and placed on several national leaderboards at the ASU Kickoff Klassic at the beginning of December. Since then athletes have taken final exams and attempted to stay fit during an extended holiday break.
“The ones we expected to be ready were,” head coach Sean Brady said. “The core group of this team stayed together in Hammond over the holidays and trained together. They really worked hard. The ones that aren't ready and fit will have to wait a few weeks to compete.”
Brady will be taking 23 athletes to the UAB meet, including Shannon Grover who is ranked second in the NCAA in the 200 meters.
“We have small group that is going to compete at the city of Birmingham's municipal track complex,” Brady said. “We're going over there because it's the best, closest opportunity to get on a 200 meter, banked track. The facility is really second-to-none.”
Some of the other athletes competing in Birmingham are Shaquille Brown, Antonio Herbert, Tavoris Mack, Phillippe Moore, Johnel Reams, Naomi Jeruto, Michelle Ogashi, Nia Stewart and C'Arra Watts.
Southeastern will also send 36 athletes to Lake Charles, La., to compete in the McNeese Indoor I.
“The McNeese State competition will have a lot of Southland Conference schools there,” Brady said. “We'll get to see how they stack up and how we compete against our conference peers.”
The traveling party to McNeese State includes Holland Bussell, Joseph LeGrange, Matt Mouton and Kovey Simmons for the men. Lady Lions competing include Bethany Burst, Colleen Butler, Jessica Fekete, Heather Fitzhenry, Renada Living, Brittany Pfantz and Lindsey Toups.
After this week's two meets Southeastern will have a few weeks to rest before competing in the Jeff Davis Bank McNeese Indoor II.
