Trackwomen hope to make good first impression at Golden Flash Invitational

The Penn State women's track team heads to Ohio to participate in the meet hosted by Kent State.

The Penn State women's indoor track team will try to make it two in a row to start the season as it travels to Ohio to compete in the Golden Flash Invitational at noon tomorrow.

The Golden Flash Invitational is hosted by Kent State and consists of 10 schools competing against each other -- the most notable will be Kent State, Bowling Green and Marshall.

This is the first time in recent memory that Penn State team will compete in this event and that has the athletes pumped.

"Competing in this event for the first time makes for a more exciting meet," Penn State senior Carleen Martin said.

This meet will have no implications for Penn State's quest for a Big Ten title, but it can help the team grow.

"It is really encouraging to see how the team keeps growing as the season goes on," Penn State coach Teri Jordan said. "This is just another chance to prove that."

This meet is also another chance for some of the Lady Lions to qualify themselves for the nationals at the end of the season.

Last week at Rutgers, under difficult conditions, Martin and freshman Olutoyin Augustus just missed qualifying.

The facilities at Kent State are in better condition than those of Rutgers. For one, the track is 300 meters long where as most tracks are only 200 meters long.

Kent State also has a board to jump from for the triple jumpers, high jumpers and the long jumpers, something that Rutgers did not have.

This is one of the reasons that Augustus will compete in the triple jump to go along with the 55-meter dash, 55-meter hurdles and the long jump.

"I hope that I can at least qualify in one of the events this weekend, if not all four," Augustus said. "I really want to qualify in the triple jump."

It would not be a surprise to see Augustus qualify in all four events. Last week in her first collegiate meet, she won all three events she competed in.

Martin also looks to benefit from the improved conditions. She missed qualifying by three inches last week.

"I think that with a board down now I can get those couple of inches and qualify," Martin said.

This meet may be a different meet than last week, in a different state, but the Lions hope to accomplish the same results.