Panthers gear for Notre Dame, Illinois Wesleyan

 

Junior Jaimee Phegley throws the 20-pound weight throw during the Illinois Intercollegiate Meet on Saturday in Lantz Fieldhouse. The Panthers will compete at Notre Dame and Illinois Wesleyan this weekend. (Erin Matheny/The Daily Eastern News)

The Eastern men's and women's track teams will keep busy this weekend while competing at the Notre Dame Meyo Invitational and Illinois Wesleyan's Keck Invitational.

While some Panthers will travel to South Bend, Ind., today and Saturday to compete in the Notre Dame Meyo Invitational, other Eastern runners will compete on Saturday in Bloomington at the Shirk Center.

The Eastern men's and women's track and field team will get to see a high level of competition and will be able to compete at a fast track this weekend at Notre Dame.

"I am excited to be going to Wesleyan to be able to improve my times and hopefully finish at the front of the pack," said freshman distance-runner Brittany Arthur.

Arthur said she is looking to improve her times this weekend and that going to Wesleyan will give her the opportunity to do so.

The IWU meet begins at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Notre Dame's two-day competition at the Loftus Center begins at 5 p.m. today, with the final day of the meet on Saturday with running events set for a 9:30 a.m. start.

"Having the opportunity to gain experience in a big time meet will give us the awareness of where we are at this point in our season," Eastern distance coach Geoff Masanet said. "We have not gone to this meet as a team in a few years, and we are definitely excited to run with teams such as Michigan State, Missouri and Indiana at Notre Dame."

Three Irish athletes have hit NCAA provisional qualifying marks, one on the men's squad and two on the women's squad.

Two male Eastern athletes have accomplished this same feat this season. Red-shirt freshman Zye Boey in the 60-meter dash and senior distance runner David Holm in the 800-meter run have both reached an NCAA provisional qualifying marks.

This is the first meet of the season where Eastern will not be competing at the Lantz Fieldhouse.

"The Notre Dame meet will also get us ready to run in the Iowa State meet," Masanet said. "We have a couple meets coming up where we will need to show up and run to the best of our ability. Getting the experience from going to the Notre Dame meet will help all of our athletes on the team."


Wally Swenson can be reached at 581-7944 or at wfswenson@eiu.edu.