Trackwomen travel to Virginia Tech for Pepsi Indoor Track Invitational

By MIKE MITSTIFER
Collegian Staff Writer

This weekend the Penn State women's indoor track team will try once more to get the second meet of the season under its belt.

After choosing not to attend last weekend's Golden Flash Invitational due to inclement weather, the Lady Lions will travel to the Pepsi Indoor Track Invitational beginning at 5 p.m. today in Blacksburg, Va. Mostly preliminaries will be held today and finals are set for 10 a.m. tomorrow.

"As it turned out, staying home was a positive. Hearing that I-80 was blocked, and tractor-trailers were jackknifing all over the place, I didn't want to risk the kids' lives," said coach Teri Jordan.

The Lions look to follow up on their outstanding opening-meet performance at the Father Diamond Invitational two weeks ago, but will have to do so against a talented field that includes three nationally ranked schools.

The team's opening success leaves one question begging to be answered. How does a team top a performance that already exceeded its own expectations?

"Since it was such a strong meet, we just have to look at our strengths and weaknesses and see how we can improve," said senior Shakeema Walker. "We just continue to train the same way and stick together as a team."

The meet brings together 26 universities along with many athletes at the post-collegiate level. Among the notable invited schools are No. 6 Georgetown, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 21 George Mason, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina State, Mt. St. Mary's and host Virginia Tech.

"It's a gigantic meet, definitely one of the most prestigious meets on the East Coast," said Jordan. "Anybody that is a track power is there."

The two-time defending Atlantic-10 outdoor track champion Hokies will host the meet at the 2-year-old Rector Fieldhouse. This state-of-the-art facility was built in 1996 in Italy before being shipped to the United States in three separate containers and brought to Blacksburg in three tractor-trailers. It was constructed day and night by volunteer social fraternities the week before its inaugural meet.

The fieldhouse also has brand new turf, an addition that generally leads to faster times across the board, especially when the type of surface being used is the one on which the last two Summer Olympics were run.

"Both the better competition and the faster track could produce some great times," said Jordan. "If someone's going to qualify for nationals this early, it probably will happen at this meet."

Rector Fieldhouse is considered one of the top five indoor track sites in North America and the only one owned by a university.

Other than some minor aches and pains, the Lions go into the meet relatively healthy with the exception of junior Laila Brock. The 200- and 400-meter runner will miss the meet with a leg injury.