Ole Miss gives SIU and invite to improve its play

Novelist William Faulkner, one of the most well-known products of Oxford, Miss., titled one of his books “Light in August.” The SIU track and field team, which competes Saturday in Oxford, would be fine with a little shine in April.

The Salukis’ first big road trip of the outdoor season takes them to the Mississippi Invitational. A loaded 23-team field will be there, looking like a sampling of top 25 football or basketball schools. The main competition comes from teams of Conference USA and the South Eastern Conference such as the host school Ole Miss, Alabama, Tulsa, Memphis, Louisiana State and Florida.

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“You go to better meets for better competition, and you go to better meets because your team deserves to go because they’re performing better,” head coach Connie Price-Smith said. “When you get into that better competition, you usually perform at that level too.”

The higher level of competition yields some anticipation among the Salukis, but it has more to do with how they will step up their games against the bigger schools than the fact that they will be in their presence.

“We’re all looking forward to that, competing against the southern schools and seeing what we can do against them and getting into that warmer weather,” jumps coach Andre Scott said. “That’s actually what I’m looking forward to because I don’t care who we compete against. Our jumpers can compete with anybody.”

Even as the only Missouri Valley Conference school at the meet, there is no need in SIU’s mind to carry any representative flags. The Salukis know they belong with any track program anywhere.

“That’s why we’re going to this meet and not Eastern Illinois, and that’s why we’re taking the kids to Mt. Sac [California] so that they find out what higher-level track and field is all about,” throws coach John Smith said.

Price-Smith said the schedule change has more to do with a fresh look than an elevated one.

“It’s not that the Eastern’s and other meets like that aren’t good competition; it’s just that we see them all the time,” Price-Smith said. “It’s good to see different people, and it’s good to see big conference schools and schools that we’ll see on a regional level.”

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The same things SIU needed to accomplish at its last two meets in Carbondale and at Southeast Missouri State are on its mind heading into Ole Miss.

“Every week, you should continue to get better,” Price-Smith said. “You do a lot of base work, which is like putting money into the bank, then you withdraw it as weeks go by. The closer you get, the more you start to take, and the better your performances should become. Everybody now looks for better performances from here on out.”

Smith expects NCAA regional qualifying marks to increase for the team, especially from his throwers and for those who have already made those marks to improve more.

“We’re going to have a lot of seasonal bests this weekend from what I’m seeing,” Smith said. “As long as we don’t run into a day with pouring rain or something nasty, we’ll be fine. People are throwing pretty solid this week.”

The first two meets of the outdoor season have produced qualifying efforts in 11 events from nine different athletes. One of the nine, junior thrower Megan Cenkush, has made it in the shot put. The worth of every meet lays in its ability to prepare for conference and the NCAAs, and Cenkush is confident more big things are on the horizon.

“Going against higher-level competition at this point is good,” Cenkush said. “It gives us an indicator of how regionals might go. It’ll help us get into the competition we’ll see there.”

Reporter Kyle Means can be reached at [email protected]