CHARLESTON, Ill. – Indiana State men's and women's track and field open the 2016-17 indoor season this Friday at Eastern Illinois for the EIU Early Bird.
 
The Sycamores enter the season picked to finish second indoors in men's competition and fourth on the women's side at the MVC Indoor Championships, as revealed by Tuesday's MVC Indoor Preseason Coaches Poll.
 
ISU will be at full force for the season opener, led on the men's side by outdoor All-American and reigning MVC Most Valuable Male Athlete, David Timlin. Timlin is the defending MVC Indoor mile and 3K Champion, and he also had a crucial leg on ISU's runner-up distance medley relay at the indoor conference meet a year ago. In each of the previous two seasons Timlin has also earned Second-Team All-American status outdoors in the 1500-meter run.
 
Also returning to lead the Sycamore men is senior hurdler Marcus Neely, who looks to become the next great ISU hurdler under men's head coach John McNichols following the departure of All-American Adarius Washington.
 
Neely was the MVC Indoor runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles to Washington in 2016, running the seventh-fastest time in school history at 7.85 seconds – falling just six thousandths of a second short of upsetting Washington for the title.
 
Outdoors, Neely kept the pedal down, qualifying for the NCAA East Regionals, finishing as MVC runner-up to Washington in the 110-meter hurdles and running the fifth-fastest time in school history at 13.70 seconds.
 
Also returning for the men are 2016 indoor All-MVC honorees Devyn Mikell (long jump, runner-up), Jaime Murtagh (high jump, runner-up) and Timlin's DMR partners Blake Kramer, Tyrell Dowdell and Tony Rigoni.
 
On the women's side, the Sycamores return some firepower in the field in MVC indoor triple jump champion Jamie Newsome, as well as shot put runner-up Cassaundra Roper and outdoor discus champion Jasmine Noel – all in action Friday night.
 
Cross country stars Brooke Moore and Taylor Austin will be in competition as well on Friday, hoping to pick up rewriting the indoor record book where they left off last season. Both ran top-10 times in the mile and 3K, with Austin also breaking the 5K school record en route to an All-MVC finish in the event.
 
Competition begins at 3 p.m. ET on Friday with the men's weight throw.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.