Lady?Back Track and Field Splits for Major Opening Weekend

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The entire Arkansas Lady’Back track and field roster will open the season at the Texas Relays, Stanford or Missouri Southern this weekend. A majority of the sprinters and jumpers will compete in Austin while the distance harriers will travel to Palo Alto. The throwers will travel north to Joplin.

The Texas Relays runs from Wednesday to Saturday and the Stanford Invite is a two-day meet covering Friday and Saturday. The MSSU Invitational is a one-day meet on Friday.

Added to the lineup outdoors are the 10,000 meters, javelin, 400-meter hurdles and 3,000-meter steeplechase, all events that could add points to Arkansas’ final score at both the SEC and NCAA meets.

At the Stanford Invitational this weekend, a bulk of the Lady’Back harriers will be competing in distances ranging from 1,500 meters to the 10K.

Dacia Barr, Dani Parry and Jillian Rosen will run the 1,500 meters. Megan Jackson, Caroline Peyton and Tiffany Redlarczyk will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Christine Kalmer and Catherine White are entered in the 5,000 meters. Denise Bargiachi and Miranda Walker will run the 10K.

In Austin this weekend, Arkansas is scheduled to compete in the 4×100-meter relay, the 4×400-meter relay, the sprint medley relay and the 4×200-meter relay.

Etienne Chaplin and Peter-Gaye Beckford are scheduled to compete in the heptathlon while the Lady’Backs will have four entries in the pole vault with Tara Diebold, Stephanie Irwin, Sarah Landau and Katie Stripling.

Makeatha Cooper and Jennifer Fall will compete in the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, respectively.

Arkansas is ranked No. 9 in the outdoor preseason rankings, it was released by the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on March 26. LSU sits atop the USTFCCCA rankings. Arizona State ranks second and Virginia Tech rounds out the top three. Arkansas (No. 9) is one of six SEC schools ranked in the top 25. Tennessee is No. 13, South Carolina is 14th, Florida sits at No. 15 and Auburn ranks 20th.

In the RunnerSpace E-8 rankings, released April 1, Barr sits at No. 6 in the 1,500 meters.

Visit www.LadyBacks.com for complete details and results from Lady’Back track and field this weekend.

Download: Fact Sheet #10 – TX Relays.Stanford 4.1.08.pdf