Dec. 3, 2008

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri State University men's and women's indoor track teams will compete in the Saluki Fast Start indoor meet on Friday at the SIU Student Recreation Center.

"This is a good chance for our athletes to see where they stack up early in the season," said first year head coach Eric Crumpecker. "We will rest most of our distance runners this week but the sprinters and field event athletes will be in competition."

Team entries include SIU-Carbondale, Southeast Missouri, Louisville, Jackson State, SIU Edwardsville and national junior college power Rend Lake.

"Our athletes who didn't participate in cross country have been working out since school started and so they are ready to go against outside competition," Crumpecker said. "Our coaching staff is also looking forward to seeing how our new athletes compete in meet conditions."

Crumpecker indicated that female sprinters Precious Elliott, Whitney Thomas and Jerica Ham have all looked very good in fall workouts. "Our female sprinters seem to be poised for a big indoor season," he said. "It will be good to see how freshman sprinters Travon Beard and Shemekia Brewer do against a good field at Carbondale."

Junior Ashley Brewer and sophomore Brianna Egbuka will be in both the shot put and weight throw.

"I'm anxious to see how our freshmen male athletes compete including Josh Sutton in the high jump, Chris Chiles in the pole vault and Joel Krause in the 800-meters," Crumpecker said. "A couple of athletes who have really looked good in workouts are Tyler Terry in the long and triple jumps and Josh Uchtman in the shot put and weight throw."

The Saluki Fast Start in Carbondale will be the Redhawks only indoor meet before the first of the year.