Bobcats hit the track for season opener

by Ryan Ernst
Assistant Sports Editor

The men's and women's Ohio indoor track and field teams travel to Morgantown, W. Va. Saturday to open their seasons at the WVU Tri-Meet hosted by West Virginia.

The women's team is coming off a ninth-place finish at last spring's Mid-American Conference Championships. The men finished 12th.

Ohio coach Elmore Banton said he was impressed with the work done by his teams in preparation for this season and hopes they can shake off the rust of a long winter break.

"I was happy with how the captains (Jacki Waller, Leah Jones, Melody Royster, Nick Pero, Steve Schaub and Kwasi Apraku-Gyau) stepped up and showed leadership in the fall, and the rest of the team followed suit," he said. "But then everybody's gone for six weeks because of that long winter break that others schools don't have and it gets hard for all of the kids to keep up with their workouts."

On the women's side of the track, the Bobcats will look to last season's MVP Melody Royster to score well. Last season she set a school record in the 100-meter hurdles, which she broke later in the season.

The men's team will have to wait for last season's MVP, Martin Jackson, to return to form in the sprints. Jackson, who finished sixth and fifth in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, respectively, at the MAC Championships, is out until the third meet with an injury.

"Hopefully (Royster and Jackson) will get nothing but better and hungrier for us this season," Banton said. "And hopefully we can get some of our youngsters right on their coattails."

Banton this weekend's meet will be a good opportunity for him to evaluate the teams and see how they will perform in meets.

"This is just an open meet and the kids are just getting back so it's going to be pretty low key," he said. "We just want to see where we are right now as a team, where we need to be and just go from there.

The Bobcats kick off their season at 1 p.m. in Morgantown on Saturday against teams from West Virginia, Robert Morris, Dayton and Penn State.