By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana State track and field is ready to get the 2015-16 indoor season underway at the Hoosier Open, hosted by Indiana University this Friday.
The Sycamores will be out in full force for the season-opener, and will even send a handful of pole vaulters over to Eastern Illinois' Early Bird Meet on Friday as well. Teams that will be making the trek to Bloomington include Purdue, Tennessee and SEC powerhouse Kentucky – among individuals from many other schools, such as New Mexico. Competition will not be scored.
ISU is coming off a superb indoor season in 2015, when both its men's and women's squads came away as Missouri Valley Conference champions. From those teams, Indiana State returns 26 total All-MVC honorees (12 women's honors, 14 men) and will defend eight individual titles (four women, four men).
Included in that total, though, is All-American John Mascari, who will miss the 2016 season due to a back injury. Mascari is the defending 3,000 and 5,000 meter champion.
However, ISU returns both indoor national qualifiers from the 2015 season in First-Team All-American senior Adarius Washington (fifth place, 60 meter hurdles, 7.78) and second-team All-American junior Alethia Marrero (16th place, 800 meter, 2:10.80).
Both have a chance for significant improvement this indoor season, though. In the 60 hurdles, defending national champion Omar McLeod of Arkansas went pro, and one other finisher ahead of Washington last season, William Taylor of Arizona State, graduated.
As for Marrero, she put on an extraordinary outdoor season, in which she toppled the all-time MVC 800 meter record (2:02.67) and finished fifth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in a historically fast heat.
Other key returnees for ISU include: All-MVC pole vaulter Connor Curley; women's high jump champion LeVisa Evans; men's long jump champion Devyn Mikell; women's triple jump champion Jamie Newsome; All-MVC sprinter Chidera Obasih; All-MVC high jumper DeSean Prentice; outdoor pole vault champion Kimyanna Rudolph; All-MVC sprinter Arqeil Shaw; outdoor Second-Team All-American distance runner David Timlin; and indoor 200 meter champion Katie Wise.
Competition is set to begin inside Gladstein Fieldhouse at 3:45 p.m. with the women'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.
