Jan. 19, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis track and field teams will split up this weekend to travel to Southern Illinois University and the University of Arkansas for a pair of meets to open the post-holiday break segment of their indoor schedules.

The entire women's team, as well as the men's field events, will head to Carbondale, Ill., for SIU's Saluki Booster Invitational, while the men's runners will make their way Fayetteville, Ark., for Arkansas' Razorback Invitational.

For a majority of the athletes, this will be the second meet of the season, following last month's ASU Kickoff Klassic. However, after being out of competition for nearly a month and a half, this weekend's meets will essentially be a new start to the indoor season.

On the women's side, the strongest performances at ASU came from newcomer Susan King, who won the shot put and placed third in the weight throw, and fellow throwers Sivan Aballi and Annette Uzoh and high jumper Chen Edri. They will look for stronger performances this weekend, while several runners should also have the opportunity to improve their times.

For the men at ASU, they were led by senior thrower J.D. Erickson, who placed second in the weight and third in the shot, while a number of runners, including Austin Hunter, Daniel Bandy, Abraham Shaposhnik and Stephon Greenlee each claimed top-four finishes. Erickson will look for better marks this weekend at SIU, and should get more support from jumper Brandon Winbush and thrower Norbert Gulyas.

At the Razorback Invitational, the solid group of runners will look to the return of top sprinter Willie Green to add to their success, while Hunter, Bandy, Shaposhnik and Greenlee, along with the rest of the sprint group will look to better their marks.

This weekend's meets should provide a good measuring stick for both the Tiger and Lady Tiger squads to compare themselves to their Conference USA counterparts as teams come out of the break and return to competition.

Events at SIU are scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. Friday afternoon and will continue Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., while the Tiger runners will begin competition in Fayetteville at 6:00 p.m. Friday night and continue at 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Results for both meets will be posted at gotigersgo.com following the completion of competition each day, with results and updates also available at the SIU website, www.siusalukis.com, and the Arkansas website, www.hogwired.com.