Louisville Track & Field Set for Rod McCravy Invite
January 31, 2008 | Women's Track and Field
Jan. 31, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After competing in Bloomington, Ind., in its last two meets, the University of Louisville track and field team will travel to Lexington, Ky., this weekend to face off against a strong field of teams at the Rod McCravy Invitational.
The unscored meet, which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, on Friday and continue on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., at the University of Kentucky's Nutter Field House, will include five nationally ranked women's teams and four nationally ranked men's teams. Leading the field of women's teams is No. 2 Tennessee, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 10 South Carolina, No. 11 Florida and NO. 17 Georgia Tech, while the men's field includes No. 2 Tennessee, No. 11 Florida, No. 16 South Carolina and No. 21 Ohio State.
Other teams include BIG EAST foe Pittsburgh, Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi State from the SEC, and regional foes Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Miami (Ohio).
"This is going to be a high level meet with nationally ranked teams from the SEC, ACC and Big XII and it'll certainly test the heart and soul of our group," said Cards' head coach Ron Mann. "This may be the most competitive indoor meet we've been a part of, outside of the BIG EAST and NCAA Championships, since I've been in Louisville.
"For our men's team, this weekend will be the collegiate debut for sprinter Edmund Yeboah since he joined our program in January. And on the women's side, we'll have Rachel Gehret and Christine Krellwitz in the high jump, Jere' Summers and ZeNai Savage in the shot put and Seidre Forde in the triple jump."
Last weekend, the Cards set seven school records, won four event titles and earned three NCAA provisional qualifying marks at the Gladstein Invitational in Bloomington. Leading the way for the Cards at IU was junior Steven Hnat with a school record and NCAA provisional qualifying throw of 58 feet, 6.75 inches to finish second overall in the shot put. Hnat, a native of Floyds Knobs, Ind., surpassed his own previous school record of 58-04.50 set two weeks ago at the Indiana Open.
Joining Hnat with an NCAA provisional mark last Saturday was junior Rudon Bastian with a leap of 25-03.35 to win his second straight long jump title this season. The native of Nassau, Bahamas, also won the long jump title at the season-opening SIU Fast Start on Dec. 7.
On the women's side, the Cards were led by the duo of Jere' Summers and Lotte Jacobs, as well as the distance medley relay team. Summers, a junior from Oakland, Calif., won her third straight shot put title of the season with an NCAA provisional qualifying throw of 51 feet, 11.25 inches, her second best throw of the year. Jacobs, a freshman from Helmond, The Netherlands, won her first career event title with a first-place time of 4:57.62 in the mile run.
The DMR team, consisting of Jacobs and Alexandra Mobley, sophomore Kat Alcorn and freshman Emily Borsare, earned a first-place and school record setting time of 11:57.97. Not only was it a winning time, but it was nearly 10 seconds faster than the previous school record of 12:06.97 set in 1995 at the Indiana Invitational.
Through three indoor meets in 2008, the Cards have earned five NCAA provisional qualifiers (three women, two men) and 48 BIG EAST qualifiers (26 men, 22 women), while also setting 10 school records (six men, four women).
Following this weekend's event at UK, the Cards will travel to South Bend, Ind., to compete at Notre Dame's Meyo Invitational on Feb. 8-9.
Players Mentioned
