EIU Track Heads To 103rd Drake Relays

LIVE STATS  |  DRAKE RELAYS INFO  |  WATCH DRAKE RELAYS  |

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois will send 25 men's and women's athletes to compete in this weekend's 103rd annual Drake Relays with eleven of those athletes slated to compete in individual events with the remainder set to run in a number of relay events.  Following this weekend EIU will compete in the Ohio Valley Conference Championships on May 5-6 in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Jade Riebold will be the highest ranked EIU competitor heading into the weekend following her record setting performance in the pole vault at EIU's Tuesday Tweener meet.  Riebold is ranked 6th in the nation in the event after clearing 14'1.75”.  She will be joined by teammateAbigail Schmitz who is currently ranked 57th nationally.

The EIU men will also send two athletes to compete in the pole vault.  Mick Viken enters ranked 10th in the NCAA while Joe Noonan is currently 43rd.

Zye Boey and Kaleel Johnson will compete in the 100m dash.  Boey is making his third Drake Relays appearance in the 100m.  He placed second as a freshman in 2009 and was seventh in 2010.  He missed the event as a junior.  Boey is ranked 24th in the nation with Johnson ranked 135th.

Megan Gingerich will be making her second straight appearance in the Drake Relays competing in the 800m.  Last year she placed seventh in the event.  Gingerich is 42nd in the nation.

Senior Donald Romero will travel to Drake to compete in the hammer throw.  He is currently 50th in the nation in the event.  Bryce Hogan will compete in the long jump holding a national ranking of No. 71.

Graham Morris and Britney Whitehead are scheduled to compete in the men's and women's steeplechase.  Morris is 89th in the nation while Whitehead is ranked 153rd nationally.  Teammate Olivia Klaus is 138th nationally in the steeplechase but is not scheduled to compete in that event at Drake.

Additional EIU men's team members heading to Drake to compete in relay events include Joe Augustine, Bryce Basting, Reid Basting, Cody Boarman, Steven Clark, Ephraim Dorsey,Stefan Gorol, Jacob Mitchell and Sean Wiggan.

Additional EIU women's team members heading to Drake to compete in relay events includePaige Biehler, Klaus, Emily Quinones, Erika Ramos and Bridget Sanchez.

Relay events with EIU teams entered include the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, 4x800, DMR and Sprint Medley.  The Panther men won the Sprint Medley relay at the Drake Relays in 2010 with current team members Boey and Wiggan part of that winning squad.