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CEDAR CITY, Utah - May 8 - Southern Utah University track & field will send 23 student-athletes to the Oxy Invitational this weekend in hopes of collecting qualifying marks for the Big Sky Conference championships, May 14-17. The field this weekend includes several athletes on the cusp of a conference qualifying mark.
The majority of the group will be out to trim a few seconds from their time on the track or add a few more feet to their performances in the field events to qualify. The men will be represented by Eric Durrant (100m, 110mH, HJ, PV), Nate Jewkes (5k), Hayden Hawks (5k), Dylan Marx (steeplechase), Ryan Conan (400mH), Jayson Matlock (400mH), Russell Nielson (DT) and Josh Bateman (JV).
The women that are scheduled to compete are Andrea Martinez (400m, 400mH), Paige Cardiff (800m), Aubrey Bryson (800m), Lesli Kinkade (PV), Erin Stone (PV), Jessica Johnson (PV), Autumn Lawrence (TJ) and Whitney Fairbanks (JV).
A number of athletes have already recorded BSC qualifying times, but will be looking to improve on regional standings with the NCAA first round only a few weeks away. That list includes Eric Sandall (800m), Anthony Brown (steeplechase), Shaun Murray (100m; 200m), Nielson (HJ, JV) and Jayson Kovar (DT, SP) on the men's side and Ashley Hawks (1,500m; 5k), Kayla Kovar (DT, HT, SP) and Whitney Singleton (SP) on the women's side.
In all, Southern Utah already has 22 qualifying marks on the men's side and 21 qualifying marks on the women's side going into the Big Sky Conference championships.
The meet, hosted by Occidental College, is a recent addition to the schedule after a meet at Weber State was canceled this week due to poor weather conditions.
“This will be a great opportunity for us this weekend to go out and get those last few qualifying marks to make us that much more successful at the conference championships,” head coach Eric Houle said. “All of these athletes are capable of putting up qualifying marks and we look forward to seeing how they perform under pressure.”
Results of the meet will be available online at www.suutbirds.com.
