Men’s and Women’s Track Preview

The SIUC men’s indoor track and field team opens its 1997 season Saturday without two of its top athletes, while the Saluki women are looking for a pre-Christmas bonding experience to see where the team stands in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Both teams, who are competing at the four-team Illinois State University Open in Normal Saturday, also are seeking the answers as to where they might stand in the conference this season.

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Men’s coach Bill Cornell said the Saluki men will have to leave Orlando McKee and Jeraldo Henry at home for its season opener. McKee and Henry, who are wide receivers for football coach Jan Quarless, have been slowed down after recovering from the football season.

Orlando McKee and Jeraldo Henry didn’t get all the training in due to the football season, Cornell said. Orlando has been nursing a slight foot problem, so I’m going to give them Christmas break to get in shape.

Women’s coach Don DeNoon said he is using the meet to keep the team fresh before Christmas break.

We have this meet primarily because we’ve trained these track athletes now since September, and we’ll be sending them home before too long, DeNoon said. If we don’t have something to measure where they are, they could lose interest over break.

Cornell said the meet should give him a good idea of how the SIUC men’s team will match up in conference action this year.

This meet in particular is for all those track and field people who have been training all semester, Cornell said. Likewise, I’ve been tied up in cross country, so I’m wanting to get a good look at them.

Middle-distance runner J.J. Simpson said the Saluki men want to see what their strengths and weaknesses are so they have time to improve on them over break.

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As a team, we want to see where we’re at and look for what we need to improve on, Simpson said.

The Salukis will be contested by Illinois State University, Indiana State University and the University of Iowa.

Cornell said the team needs to become more competitive in the meet this year compared to recent years. The Salukis finished third out of four teams last year.

We know it should be a pretty good meet, Cornell said. We need to go out with a little more pizzazz, or whatever you want to call it. We’ve gone out there like it as time trials; we need to go out ready this year.

The women’s team is returning conference champion Mindy Bruck in the 800-meter run and multi-event runner Lorraine Parkinson, who competed in the long jump, shot-put, hurdles and high jump last season.

Lorraine was basically the No. 1 multi-event athlete in the conference last year, DeNoon said.

DeNoon also has high expectations for distance runner Kelly French.

Kelly is in outstanding condition right now, DeNoon said. Kelly will be running the 3,000-meter run, and I expect her to have an outstanding performance.

French said the team is ready for the season to get underway.

We’ve had really good practices, and we just want to start the year out with a bang, French said.

DeNoon said he cannot speculate on what to expect from his team this season.

As scary as it sounds, I hate to sit down and make expectations, DeNoon said. I think this team is really unknown. We totally have our work cut out for us.

The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams compete in their first meets of the season Saturday at 11 a.m. in Normal.