Auburn, Ala.—The Auburn track and field team will compete in its second indoor meet of the season this weekend when it travels to the Vanderbilt Invitational, January 18-19, at the Vanderbilt Indoor Track Facility in Nashville, Tenn.
"It's going to be a very competitive meet," Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said. "This facility is an oversized track at 300 meter track, so it's a little different layout. We held SEC's there two years ago. The main thing is, it's still kind of early. Hopefully, we can get something done with this cooler weather this week. The name of the game is getting better each weekend."
Over 40 Auburn athletes will be in action during the weekend. Friday's competition will start at 4 p.m. CT with the men's and women's high jump. Running events on Day 1will begin at 7 p.m. with the women's 200m dash. Live results will be available at: https://bit.ly/2ASn5Op.
Saturday will see a full day of action starting with the women's 3000m run at 10 a.m. The day will conclude with the men's 4x400m relay at 5:25 p.m.
The meet will be an opportunity for the team to progress against solid competition. Over 20 teams, including six from the SEC, will be represented in Nashville.
"I'm looking for some of our young women, sprinters, to step it up," Spry said. "We've got several from the east coast that are quarter-milers that I'm really hoping to see run well," Spry said. "We've got a good, young throwers core led by Coach Pat Ebel, that are really good SEC throwers. We want to really see them progress as well."
In the Tigers' season opener January 11 at the UAB Blazer Invitational in Birmingham, Auburn had a solid showing with several collegiate bests including an event win by junior Presley Weems in the women's 1000m. Weems captured the 1000m in a time of 2:52.14 giving the Hoover, Ala., native her first indoor win of her Auburn career and second overall.
"With this big, young group we've got, I thought we had a lot of good things happen and some things I wasn't too excited about," Spry said about the opener. "We got a chance to see people compete and see where we are. All in all, I like the way we fought. I think we had a lot of events where we really competed well. Presley Weems won the 1,000 meters and we had a couple kids finish second and third, and others with some personal bests."
Following the Vanderbilt Invitational, the Tigers will head to Clemson, S.C., and the Bob Pollack Invitational, Jan. 25-26.
