DePaul University

CHICAGO The DePaul men’s and women’s track and field teams continue their 2008 indoor campaign this weekend at the Indiana Relays and Chicago Duals.  The Blue Demons compete on Friday and Saturday at Gladstein Fieldhouse in Bloomington, Indiana and on Saturday at the University of Chicago’s Henry Crown Fieldhouse.

Indiana Relays
Joe Strawder opens the Indiana Relays for DePaul on Friday as he enters the men’s long jump preliminaries at 3 p.m. (CST).  The Blue Demon sophomore joins the event with four marks better than the BIG EAST Championship qualifying standard of 6.55m, including a season-best jump of 7.20m.  A placement among the top 12 jumpers puts Strawder in Saturday’s finals.

Friday’s action on the track opens at 3:15 p.m. when Stephanie Williams represents DePaul in the women’s 60m dash preliminaries.  Williams enters the event with three BIG EAST qualifications and a season-best time of 7.71.  The top 16 runners advance to Saturday’s semifinals.  Williams is also set to race in the women’s 200m dash preliminaries on Friday at 8:35 p.m.

Brad Millar continues Friday’s field events at 4:30 p.m. in the men’s weight throw preliminaries.  Millar recorded a season-best throw of 17.15m at last week’s Carle/Health Alliance Classic.  The DePaul sophomore needs a top-12 mark to reach Saturday’s finals. 

The women’s weight throw preliminaries open on Friday at 7 p.m. when Tammy Burris and Virginia MacFabe compete for the Blue Demons.  MacFabe holds a team-best throw of 16.91m, while Burris carries a season-best mark of 16.13m.  The top 12 throwers advance to Saturday’s finals.

Saturday’s competition gets underway at 10:25 a.m. when Kwaku Attoh, Gilbert Lifton, Donnie Smith, Patrick Smith and Gabe Vargas take on the men’s 200m dash.  Lifton and Vargas enter the weekend with times better than the BIG EAST standard of 22.69.

DePaul wraps up the meet on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. in the men’s 4x400m dash.  The Blue Demons are also scheduled to compete in the men’s and women’s 400m dash, men’s and women’s mile run, men’s triple jump, women’s 600m run and women’s 800m run.

Chicago Duals
Saturday’s meet opens at 11:30 a.m. with field events, while action on the track opens at noon.

Ebonie Cobb and Melissa Fraser compete for DePaul in the women’s throwing events.  Cobb enters the weight throw with a season-best mark of 12.52m and the shot put with a season-best throw of 11.59m, while Fraser takes on the weight throw with a personal-best toss of 13.97m.

Michael Fry and Richard Byrne race for the Blue Demons in both the men’s 800m and mile races.  Byrne carries a season-best mile time of 4:34.09, while Fry clocked a time of 4:41.60 last month at the Purdue Invitational.

The women’s distance races feature Terah Cheatham and Stephanie Hughes in the 3,000m run and Reda Josifi in the 5,000m run.  Cheatham holds two of DePaul’s top-three 3,000m times this season.  Jeremy Applebaum, Brian Godar and Ryan Solomon enter the men’s 3,000m race, while Jakub Kolacz takes on the 5,000m run.

The Blue Demons also compete in the men’s and women’s 55m dash, men’s and women’s 200m dash, men’s and women’s 400m dash, men’s and women’s pole vault, women’s 4x400m relay and women’s distance medley relay.