BIG EAST Championship Central | USF's All-Time Records | Interactive Guide | Media Center

TAMPA – After months of training and competition, the University of South Florida track and field teams will wrap up the 2009-10 indoor season at the BIG EAST Championships Friday and Saturday at The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory in New York, looking to move up in the conference from last year's finishes.

Tickets are just $15 a day for adults and $5 for students and can be purchased at entrance to The Armory. Parking procedures and directions to The Armory can be found here.

If you can't make it to the Big Apple, for $9.95 for a one-month subscription, fans can follow the meet via a live stream. Click here to access the BIG EAST's schedule of events and to sign up for a subscription to catch all of the action for the weekend.

Also check back with the official Armory website for live results and heat sheets as they become available up through the weekend. Click here for the order of events for both Friday and Saturday.

USF will send 18 women and 18 men to the meet, as the Bulls posted a total of 22 BIG EAST qualifying marks on the women's side and 25 on the men's. Twelve of those times for the men occurred in the 60, 200 and 400 meters, while seven of the 47 total came from USF's pole vaulters. The women also qualified four athletes in the triple jump, while freshman Neamen Wise was USF's only three-event qualifier as he bested BIG EAST marks in the 60, long jump and 60 hurdles.

For the complete list of qualifiers on the men's side, click here, and on the women's side, click here, or check out the tables below. The complete BIG EAST performance list with everyone in the conference who has posted a qualifying mark can be accessed here.

USF will look to improve up the team finishes in 2009, when the men took 10th at the meet with 19 points, while the women finished 12th with 20.5 points.

Check back at GoUSFBulls.com for the complete recap and meet results when they become available each day. As always, results will be posted first on the Media Center page, along with results from every meet throughout the year.

Who To Look Out For
Several BIG EAST qualifiers are primed to make a run at the league title or possibly finish in the top 3 to earn all-conference honors, highlighted by junior Stephanie Duffy and freshman Neamen Wise, who have the top marks in the conference in the pole vault and heptathlon, respectively.

Duffy leapt 13-3.5 in the pole vault at the Reebok Invitational to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships, while Wise posted 5,142 points in the heptathlon at the Minnesota Invitational, with the second-best BIG EAST qualifier, UConn's Jacob Waruch, sitting at 4,887.

In addition, both freshman Lindsey Lamar and senior Greg Fontus rank second in the 60 and 200 meters, respectively, with times of 6.77 and 21.83. Wise and freshman Derrick Hopkins are fifth and seventh in the 60 meters in 6.86 and 6.87.

Two of USF's pole vaulters could challenge for All-BIG EAST honors, as seniors Sean Young and Grant Scelzi are currently third and fourth among conference athletes at 16-6.25 and 16-1.75. Also aiming to make a splash are senior high jumper Michael Kursteiner and sophomore hurdler David Aristil, who rank sixth in their respective events.

In addition to Duffy, sophomore Lauren Noe in the weight throw and freshman Monique Williams in the triple jump enter the meet fourth in their respective events.

Senior Samantha Shade comes in holding the seventh-best mark in the triple jump, along with senior Yvana Hepburn in the 60 hurdles and junior Dana Webb in the pole vault. Williams also ranks in the top 10 in the long jump, holding down the No. 9 seed.

Along with all the individual performances, the men's DMR ranks fourth, while the men's 4x400 relay and the women's DMR come into the weekend at sixth among the conference teams.

BIG EAST Indoor History
Now entering its fifth season for BIG EAST track and field, the USF program looks to add to its previous resume in conference competition with a strong showing this weekend.

Junior Stephanie Duffy, who owns the top mark in the conference in the pole vault, will look to give USF its second indoor champion in the women's pole vault in three years following Denise vonEynatten's win in 2008. vonEynatten holds the BIG EAST conference record in the pole vault with her leap of 13-7.25 at the 2008 meet.

Current junior Dana Webb and vonEynatten earned All-BIG EAST honors in 2008 for finishing in the top 3, while former high jumper Courtney LaCroix earned back-to-back all-conference honors in 2006 and '07.

One the men's side, Glenn Fowler picked up the BIG EAST title in the 60 meter hurdles last season, the first indoor campaign for the men in eight years.

The highest placement for the women's team in BIG EAST action came in 2008 when the Bulls finished 10th in the standings with 35 points.

The women won 23 different indoor titles in during USF's time in Conference USA from the 1996 indoor season through 2005. The men won five titles in indoor history before dropping indoor track.

Trio of Bulls Compete in Elite Meet
Three of USF's track and field athletes competed last weekend at the Tyson Invitational against some of the best collegiate athletes, all of whom were looking to improve their season bests prior to their respective conference championships.

Pole vaulters Stephanie Duffy and Sean Young and hurdler Yvana Hepburn all traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., home of the NCAA Indoor Championships, as they look to get back to Fayetteville in a few weeks. Duffy and Hepburn provisionally qualified in their events at the Reebok Invitational Jan. 29, while Young is a former NCAA outdoor competitor.

Young cleared 16-6.75, while Duffy went 12-10 as they finished 13th and 12th, respectively, at the meet. Hepburn ran a time of 8.49 to place 15th. Both Hepburn and Young posted season bests on the year.

Speed Gets Noticed
Freshman Lindsey Lamar, who hails from Tampa, garnered this blog from Bill Ward with the Tampa Tribune about being seeded second in the BIG EAST in the 60 meters along with freshman Derrick Hopkins, who stands seventh. The article also mentions how Lamar will be joined on the football team by cousin and cornerback Terrence Mitchell next season. Mitchell is also a track and field standout, as he placed second in the long and triple jumps as well as fifth in the 300 hurdles at the 2009 Florida 3A state meet as a junior.

Greg Auman, in his blog for the St. Pete Times, also mentions how USF owns four of the top nine fastest times in the BIG EAST this year.

Last Time Out For the Bulls
Both the men and women took fourth at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Feb. 5-6 held at Penn State in the team standings, with the women scoring 69 points behind No. 8 Penn State, No. 17 Auburn and Cornell. The men tied No. 20 Auburn with 71 points, behind No. 14 Penn State, Cornell and Princeton.

The men's 4x400 relay took first in the second day of competition with a time of 3:16.40 on the legs of sophomores David Aristil and Reshaw Exilien, senior Mikail Ebanks and freshman Pascal Orelus.

Aristil also won the 60-meter hurdles title at the meet with a time of 8.04 in the first day of competition, while second-place finishes were also brought in by junior Stephanie Duffy in the pole vault and sophomore Lauren Noe in the weight throw.

Sophomore Shaniel Chambers posted the second-fastest time in USF history in the 800, while freshman Monique Williams took fourth in the triple jump and tied the third-best indoor mark in school annals with a leap of 39-3.

Head to the new Media Center page to find the links to the full recap and the results in PDF format from the Sykes-Sabock Challenge, as well as the recap and results from every meet during the rest of the season as they happen. Don't forget to keep tabs on the team's progress throughout the year with the Track & Field Records and History Index page, which includes everyone's personal bests - indoor and outdoor - as well as a running tab of the best times and marks for the season and a complete performance list.

Chambers Earns Northwestern Mutual Academic Honor
As much pride as the Bulls take in the achievements of the athletes on the field, their achievements in the classroom are just as honored. Last week, sophomore distance runner Shaniel Chambers was named February's Northwestern Mutual Academic Student-Athlete of the Month. A criminology major, Chambers posted a 3.87 GPA during the Fall 2009 semester and owns an overall GPA of 3.88 through three semesters. She was one of 18 athletes on the women's track and field team to post a 3.75 GPA or higher in the fall semester, including 11 who had 4.0's.

Learn More About...
Throughout the season, GoUSFBulls.com will help you get to know the seniors on the track and field teams better with a quick question and answer session. Click here for last week's Q&A, sprinter Armante Marshall, and click here for this week's feature, decathlete Grant Scelzi.

USF Unveils 2009-10 Online Interactive Guide
The USF athletics department will no longer print media guides and has now switched over to a new online, interactive format, which features vivid photography, videos of both the coaches and athletes, as well as everything else one would need in order to stay informed about the USF track and field program. Click here to head to the press release and then click on the image inside the story to open up the 2009-10 Track & Field Interactive Guide. Learn more about the athletes, watch them perform on the track, listen to what the coaches have to say about the program, and much, much more.

Up Next
USF will get a two-week break from competition before beginning the outdoor season, starting with USF's first home meet March 5 at the USF Track and Field Stadium as the Bulls host the USF Open. The NCAA Indoor Championships will conclude the indoor season March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.