By Chandler Harris, Assistant Sports Editor
The ACU track and field team will travel to Lubbock Friday and Saturday for its first track meet of the semester, the Wes Kittley Invitational. The meet will be indoors on the campus of Texas Tech University.
The first meet of the 2009 season will be used as a measuring stick of where the teams are in their training, said Don Hood, head track and field coach.
“This meet is a great opportunity to see how we stack up against good competition,” Hood said.
The meet will have participants from Division I, Division II and junior colleges. Some notable teams scheduled to compete are TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, Hardin-Simmons, McMurry and South Plains Junior College.
“It is a meet where we have trained all fall and now we can evaluate where we are,” said Abe Brown, assistant track and field coach. “We have so much experience returning that we should do fairly well.”
The men’s and women’s team won their respective NCAA Division II outdoor national championships in May.
Six Wildcat men who previously won individual national championships are returning this year. In 2006, Jordan Johnson, junior from Mesquite, won the 400m and anchored the 4×100 relay team that won the championship. In 2007, Julius Nyango, senior from Aldai, Kenya, won the national title in the 800m. In 2008, Nick Jones, sophomore from Amarillo, placed first in the discus; Raymond Radway, senior from McKinney, won the 400m; Daniel Maina, senior from Nanyuki, Kenya, finished atop the field of the 3000m steeplechase; and Camille Vandendriessche, senior from Antony, France, won the title in the decathlon.
Three Wildcat women with individual national titles will return in 2009. In 2008, Winrose Karunde, sophomore from Nyeri, Kenya, won both the 10,000m and 3000-meter steeplechase. As a freshman, she won a total of three individual national titles, including her indoor title in the 5000m. Linda Brivule, junior from Riga, Latvia, won the javelin title, and in 2007, Jessica Withrow, senior from Muleshoe, won the heptathlon title.
“This year is going to be fun,” Hood said. “This is the first time in 10 years that both the men and women’s teams are returning to defend national championships simultaneously.”
Hood said that the women’s squad was down for a few years but has worked extremely hard to get to where it is.
“They are not as deep as the men’s team, but our talents covers a lot of event areas and gives us a chance to do some things,” Hood said. “The men’s team is returning its core group of national champions, and we have quality depth all around.”
The team’s next meet will be at Texas Tech University for the Texas Tech Invitational on Jan. 24.
