LITTLE ROCK – The Trojans' biggest track meet of the season kicks off on Friday evening as the team heads to Gulf Shores, Ala., for the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championship.
The three-day meet, held at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium, will run from Friday at 10 a.m. through 8 p.m. on Sunday night. Live stats and live video will be available for the meet.
The only Trojans competing on the meet's first day will be senior Shaun Koehn and junior John Vodacek. The pair will compete in the 10K for the first time all year, running that race at 9:15 p.m. Koehn, though, ran the 10K at the 2013 Sun Belt Indoor Championship, placing sixth to score points for UALR. Vodacek ran in the 10K at least year's championship, also placing sixth to score points.
The rest of the team gets started with their races and jumps on Saturday. Desmond Gulley and Victor Shores will see action in the long jump at 5 p.m. while the Trojans' sprinters and distance runners compete throughout the evening. The preliminary races for every sprint and mid-distance race will take place on Saturday with the top eight runners qualifying for Sunday's finals.
Sunday will showcase Gulley and Shores again in the triple jump at 3 p.m., followed by the finals of the sprints and other distance races into the evening. The competition concludes with the 4x400 relays at 7:55 p.m.
UALR will be looking to better its showing of ninth place (men) and 10th place (women) from back in 2014. Earlier this year at the Indoor Championships, the Trojan men came in eighth place while the women took seventh place. The women scored 28 points at that meet, all thanks to the efforts of distance runner Emma Dahl. And the men had a good showing from Jack Bruce, who scored four points in the mile and five in the 3K to help the team to a 22-point total. Vodacek's third-place finish in the 5K was excellent as well.
If the Trojans have times or distances that qualify, members of the team will participate at the NCAA West Regional in Austin, Texas, beginning on May 28.
