Chippewas Open Outdoor Season
3/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | MTF
Brent Schriber, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan men's and women's track and field team will begin their outdoor season this weekend with the Clark Wood Invitational at Louisville's Cardinal Park.
CMU, Louisville, DePaul, Illinois State, Indianapolis, and Bellarmine are scheduled to compete.
While CMU is eagerly anticipating its first opportunity to compete outside this season, senior distance runner Abby Kelto will compete this weekend in the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State in an attempt to post an NCAA-qualifying time in the the 5,000-meter run.
Last November, Kelto became just the second CMU female runner to place in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, as she finished 84th. Kelto holds CMU's indoor 5,000-meter record, and during the indoor season, she set the school standard in the 3,000, finishing in 9 minutes, 27.44 seconds.
"It's really hard to have a distance runner get qualified (for the NCAA) because you have to run a 5,000, a 10,000, and it takes recovery time," said CMU director of track and field/cross country Mark Guthrie. "She's at the level where we just need to get her to certain meets and places without stressing her."
The outdoor season provides many more opportunities for CMU athletes because of the number of events offered as opposed to indoors. Among them are the discus, the javelin, the 3,000 steeplechase, the 400 hurdles, and the 4x100-meter relay.
Guthrie said the Chippewas will take upwards of 40 athletes to Louisville.
"It's not about winning or losing on this one, it's just trying to find out where we're at fitness wise at this time and how are we going to get to where we need to be in seven weeks for the MAC meet," Guthrie said. "This will tell us a lot about where we are at."
The two-day meet begins Friday at 3:30 p.m.