Women's Track & Field to Host Alabama Relays
3/23/2011 12:00:00 AM
March 23, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama women's track and field team opens the 2011 outdoor season this weekend when it hosts the Alabama Relays at the Sam Bailey Track and Field Complex. Action begins on Thursday and Friday with the heptathlon and decathlon, with the bulk of the meet following on Saturday and Sunday.
The squad is looking to build upon a strong indoor season that resulted in two student-athletes competing at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. Junior Krystle Schade earned All-America honors in the high jump after finishing seventh at the NCAA meet. She currently ranks second on the Alabama all-time list with her jump of 6-0 ¾, an indoor personal best which placed her second at the SEC Indoor Championships. Wilamena Hopkins also competed at the NCAA meet, finishing 21st in the shot put with a mark of 49-7 ¾. Hopkins earned an SEC title in the shot put and a personal-best mark of 54-7 ½, placing her second on the Alabama all-time list.
"I always like the Alabama Relays," UA head coach Sandy Fowler said. "It's the start of the outdoor season and we have a fantastic outdoor team with the addition of some outdoor events and some very talented young ladies in those events. I told them that the key is to open up where you left off. It's key to get a great opening point and go from there."
Some of the events not staged during the indoor season that Fowler is anxious to see at the start of outdoor campaign include the javelin, 1,500m and the 100m and 400m hurdles.
"We earned 22 points in the javelin at the SEC Championships so I'm excited for them and I'm also very excited about the hurdles," Fowler said. "We have a great group of hurdlers with Kim Laing coming back, Audra Frimpong, Shani Chandler in the short hurdles and Kaylon Eppinger. We're also loaded in the 1,500m run with Katlyn Will and Elsbeth Denton, just to name a few. This weekend is all about getting it done. I see this as being a bunch of recovered athletes coming to Alabama Relays to qualify for NCAA Regionals and that's the job they need to get done."
Teams traveling to Tuscaloosa to compete this weekend include UAB, Western Michigan, Southern Mississippi, Mississippi, Louisville and Notre Dame among many others sending individuals to compete.
The women's heptathlon will start competition on Thursday, March 24 at 9:30 a.m. (CDT) and will continue Friday morning at 11 a.m. The women's hammer throw will also be held on Friday at 4 p.m.
On Saturday, individual events begin at 8:30 a.m. with the women's 10,000m run and will continue throughout the day with the last scheduled event set for 5:25 p.m.
The men's hammer throw will open competition on Sunday at 8 a.m. Relays are slated to begin at 11:30 a.m. with the women's shuttle hurdle relay, while the last event, the men's 4x400m relay, is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Admission to the Alabama Relays is free and open to the public. Results for the meet will be available through www.cfpitiming.com as well as www.rolltide.com after each day of competition has concluded.
Players Mentioned
