FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The No. 1 ranked Razorbacks will open the 2005 indoor track and field season on Friday, Jan. 14, when they host the Arkansas Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center. Five teams, including Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Texas A&M will have athletes competing at the meet. The field events will start at noon and the running events will begin at 3 p.m. Finals of men's events are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
"This meet will be a good opportunity to see where we are after break and see what kind of shape the guys are in," Arkansas head coach John McDonnell said. "I hate for them to be idle for as long as they were over the break, so I'll be interested to see how they do.
"It's not a huge meet, but we have good teams coming in," McDonnell said. "Those teams will give us a good knowledge of how good we're going to be."
UA will field most of its team on Friday night and the Hogs are looking forward to kicking off their indoor campaign as they go for NCAA qualifying times and marks. Sophomore NCAA 200-meter champion Wallace Spearmon Jr., will have his try at the 400 meters and will also take a leg of the 4x400-meter relay.
Junior 100-meter national champion Tyson Gay will join Spearmon on the relay as well as senior All-American Terry Gatson. Gatson will also compete in the 400. Senior Omar Brown is listed as the final member of the 4x400-meter relay. Sophomore All-American Creighton Kiper will be the only Razorback lining up in the 60 and 200-meter dashes.
The 3,000 meters is an event that will field six Hog runners, including seniors Eric Gross and All-American Jason Sandfort, juniors Matt Gunn, Marc Rodrigues, Josh Robles and freshman Shawn Forrest.
Several UA athletes will also fill the mile run and have their try at NCAA qualifying times. Junior Jose Campos and Harun Iman and sophomores Abdi Dubed, Peter Kosgei and Adam Perkins will line up in the event. Senior All-American James Hatch, junior David Wittenmyer and sophomore transfer Brian Roe will each get ready for the 800 meters.
The field events have welcomed a couple new faces in freshman Chessly Johnson and Brent Rosson. Johnson will see competition in the triple jump with senior All-American Jaanus Uudmae, while Rosson will compete in the high jump with senior Cory Oldham.
Junior Jimmy Duke normally pole vaults for Arkansas, but on Friday he is entered in the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, shot put, long jump and high jump in order to prepare for the heptathlon.
After the Arkansas Invitational the Hogs will enjoy hosting another home meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center with the Razorback Invitational set for Jan. 21-22.
