Troy University Athletics
Track & Field Announces 2009 Schedule
1/9/2009 6:00:00 AM | Track & Field
TROY, Ala. - With the beginning of the indoor season of track and field beginning in just two weeks, the Troy Trojans track and field program released its 2009 schedule this morning that features seven indoor meets and 12 outdoor meets.
The Trojans open the indoor season at Middle Tennessee on Saturday, January 24 before taking the next week off and heading to Sewanee, Tenn. for the Tiger Indoor Invitational on February 7.
Troy will follow that date up with a two-day event at Clemson University on February 13 and 14, before taking a week off to prepare for the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships that will take place at Arkansas State University February 28 and March 1. The final two meets of the indoor season are an NCAA Qualifier and the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted by Texas A&M March 13 and 14.
The Trojans sponsor women's indoor track and field only, and will look to their experience to pay dividends during this year's schedule and the conference indoor championships. Senior Agata Cichoszewska and junior Tiphanie Baker return to anchor a formidable team in the pits and in throws.
Cichoszewska is a two-time NCAA Regional participant in outdoors (triple jump), but will challenge for a spot in the indoor championships in her final season. She is also the first female student-athlete in track and field to be named All-Region, earning that honor in her sophomore season. The senior finished eighth last season at the Sun Belt Conference meet in the long jump with a distance of 5.58 meters, and won the bronze medal in the triple jump with a jump of 12.45 meters.
Meanwhile, Baker returns as the school record-holder in the discus and hammer (both indoors and outdoors). She won the gold medal in 2007 at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships in the discus, and will look to improve on her finish in the indoor season from the championships a season ago. Baker finished 10th in the shotput with a distance of 12.06 meters.
Senior Monique Jordan will look to improve on her 10th place finish at last season's Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships, when she threw the hammer a distance of 14.26 meters.
On the track, both Kelly Harrington and Jenean Corcoran will look to improve on their finish in the mile run last season. Harrington finished ninth at the conference championships with a time of 5:20.49, while Corcoran finished 14th with a time of 5:32.80. They also both ran in the 5000-meter competition for the Trojans and will look to improve on their finish from a season ago.
Meanwhile, the outdoor season begins in March for the Trojans and concludes with the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (Fayetteville, Ark.) June 10 through June 13.
The Trojans will open the outdoor season with a trip up the road to Birmingham-Southern College and the BSC Invite on March 14. The meet takes place on the same day as the finals of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas. Following that meet, the Trojans will travel to a meet they did not participate in last season, the Georgia Relays in Athens. The meet is scheduled for March 20 and March 21 on the campus of the University of Georgia.
The very next weekend, the Trojans travel to Florida State University for the FSU Combined Events and Relays. The meet starts on Thursday, March 26 and concludes on Saturday, March 28. Over the course of the next four weekends, the Trojans find themselves in action from Auburn to Mobile to Baton Rouge. The Trojans travel to Auburn, for the first of two meets, beginning April 3 in the Tiger Track Classic. The next weekend, the Trojans are in Mobile at the South Alabama Invitational.
After the meet at South Alabama, the teams will split with one squad going to LSU for the LSU Combined Events April 16 and 17, while others will travel to Auburn for the second time this season at the Auburn Invitational April 17 and 18. The final meet of the long stretch of consecutive weekends will be the Coach O Invitational hosted by Troy on April 25 (an all day event).
Following the Coach O meet, the Trojans will have a week off to prepare for the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships beginning May 8 and running until May 10 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
The Trojans return five medal-winning student-athletes from last season's team at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships on a men's team that finished third overall in the meet (99.50 points) and fourth overall in the meet on the women's side (101 points).
Jordan and Cichoszewska both won silver medals on the women's side, in the discus and triple jump respectively.
The Trojan men return three medalists from a season ago at the conference meet, including senior Lamar Hicks who had the fastest time in the conference in the 100-meters until the conference meet. Hicks returns as silver medalists in the 100-meters and narrowly missed a medal in the 200-meters. He is the school recordholder in the 100-meters at the university. Leander McKenzie also returns on the track for the Trojans with a silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles, while Norman Austin will look to improve on his silver medal finish of a season ago at the Sun Belt Conference Championships.
The Trojans will also look the multi-event athlete Mike Conley to score points this season, coming off an injury-riddled season; as is junior Matavis Madden who was a regional participant in his freshman season, but competed injured in 2008.
The Trojans will look to be much improved this season, and will open the season January 24 (indoors - women only) at Middle Tennessee and March 14 (outdoors) at Birmingham-Southern. For a complete look at the 2009 track and field schedule, click here.
