April 2, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The University of Memphis track and field squad heads north into Missouri for the 28th annual Joey Hines Invitational (formerly known as SEMOtion Relays) scheduled for Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4.

"My expectations are that we go in and win both men's and women's meet overall," said head coach Kevin Robinson. It is the first scored meet that we have competed in during the outdoor season. We're going to enter our kids in almost every event imaginable.

Last week at the LSU Relays two Lady Tigers put up NCAA regional qualifying shot put marks including senior Sivan Aballi's toss of 15.31m (50-02.75) and sophomore Marina Vojinovic's mark of 12.52m (41-01.00). Also at the LSU Relays, Junior transfer Tayanna Simpson set a Memphis school record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:01.68.

"I expect Inger (Anne Froysedal) and Aaron (Whetstone) to do something special this weekend," said Robinson. "I think Tayanna (Simpson) and LaBritney (Horton) is ready to perform and I also believe that Christian (McDonald) is ready to throw really well."

The Tigers look to add to their number of regional qualifiers this weekend as they go up against several high caliber track programs including Southeast Missouri, SIU-Carbondale, Arkansas State, Western Illinois, Central Arkansas, Lincoln, Rend Lake and Florissant Valley who bring both men's and women's programs. Missouri State and Murray State will enter only women's teams.

NCAA Division I teams will be scored as a series of dual meets. The team championship for men and women will go to the team with the best won-loss record in the dual meets.

The competition begins with the hammer throw for men and women at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The meet resumes on Saturday with field events beginning at 11:00 a.m. and running events at 11:30 a.m.

"Assuming we have good performances and the weather is cooperative, we should have a very good chance to win the meet and hopefully we can add a few more kids to our list of regional qualifiers," said Robinson. "Anything can happen on any given day. I know the athletes are training hard and preparing well, and we're excited because we're getting into the heart of the season and our performances are really starting to improve at this point."

The meet which has been held on the first weekend in April since 1982, will feature 20 teams including nine men's teams and 11 women's teams. The field includes a number of championship teams including Lincoln University's NCAA Division II women's indoor championship team, the SIU-Carbondale women's team that won the Missouri Valley Conference indoor title, the Southeast Missouri men's team that won last year's Ohio Valley Conference outdoor title and the Rend Lake Community College team that has claimed several NJCAA national titles in the past few years.