This weekend, several of the nation’s top track and field athletes will pace their way to the SIUC Recreation Center.

The Recreation Center will be the site of the 1996 National Junior College Indoor Track and field Championships.

The events which take place at the Recreation Center’s indoor track facility March 1-2, will mark the first time SIUC has ever held a national collegiate track and field championship meet.

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The meet will kick off with the pentathlon at 9:00 a.m., Friday morning and conclude Saturday after the women’s 4×400-meter dash, which begins at 3:55 p.m.

Women’s track and field coach, Don DeNoon is the coordinator of the event and said several hundred athletes will converge at the Recreation Center’s indoor track facility to compete.

This is the first time SIUC has ever hosted a national track and field championship and DeNoon said it should help bring notoriety to SIUC and Southern Illinois.

This would be a very positive thing for SIUC, DeNoon said. People will go back and say, what a beautiful campus and what a top notch athletic facility’.

DeNoon said the facilities SIUC has to offer will be seen by coaches and those coaches, in turn, will pass the word to other coaches. He said the meet will probably enhance recruiting for all sports at SIUC.

DeNoon said he has heard from universities such as; Illinois, Alabama, Syracuse, and Purdue, who have all expressed interest in watching the competition.

According to DeNoon, virtually every motel in Marion and Carbondale is booked full as a result of SIUC hosting the NJCAA Championships.

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DeNoon said there will be close to 400 athletes participating in the events this wekend.

He also said there will probably be about 150 parents and other loyal observers traveling to the meet.

DeNoon said SIUC received the opportunity to host the meet after the University of Missouri had to cancel because of prior scheduling events.

It was a gift to us in some respects, DeNoon said. The junior college track hierarchy started looking around (after UM canceled) and someone suggested SIUC.

Among the colleges in attendance will be Cloud Community College of Concordia, Kansas. CLCC track and field coach, Harry Kitchener, is the president of the Junior College Track Coaches Association, and is in charge of selecting the site for the national meet.

Kitchener said that Ron Buss, the assistant track and field coach at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley and the former president of JCTCA, went to the Saluki/USA Open on Feb. 16-17, and recommended SIUC as the site for the 1996 Championships.

I didn’t bring our team down to the meet (Saluki/USA Open) they had this season, but Ron Buss went out and vice-president of the Coaches Association, David Burgess, from Johnson County (Community College in Overland Park, Ks.) took some of his team to the meet.

They were very satisfied with the way they ran the meet, Kitchener said.

The NJCAA Indoor Championships will bring some of the top collegiate track and field athletes together in one building. As DeNoon explained, this is an excellent opportunity for the NCAA and other four year programs to get a good look at the field of athletes.

Although DeNoon said he has rarely actively recruited junior college athletes, other Division I schools view the junior college ranks as a prime area for recruiting.

I never really have actively recruited junior college athletes, DeNoon said. There are a lot of schools like ourselves in Division I, who don’t really have the coaching staffs to coach their athletes while someone goes off recruiting.

Kitchener agreed that the meet is a good way for junior college athletes to get exposure to a larger four year school and a way for SIUC to receive exposure as well.

It (the meet) promotes the sport of track and field in their (SIUC’s) area, Kitchener said. As far as recruiting, a lot of universities have talked to us about wanting it (the meet), they want to get the kids on campus. Getting the kids on campus is a plus for the institution, Kitchener said.

Admission for each day of the meet is five dollars for adults and three dollars for students. SIUC students with a valid ID will be able to view the festivities at no charge.