Meet Schedule | Directions to the Stadium | Heat Sheets | USF's All-Time Records | Interactive Guide | Media Center

TAMPA – After a two-week break, the outdoor season kicks off Friday for the University of South Florida track and field teams as the Bulls host the USF Open out at the USF Track & Field Stadium.

Admission is free to the public, and the stadium affords fans the opportunity to walk all the way around the track and catch different events up close. For directions to get to the stadium, click here.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. with the hammer throw at the cage on the corner of 50th and Holly streets. The discus will be thrown at 2 p.m. and will be the first event at the actual track and field stadium. Most field events will occur before the running events, which are set to start at 5 p.m. with the 3,000-meter steeplechase and will be on a rolling schedule. For the complete schedule of events, click here.

Teams scheduled to compete include Nova Southeastern, Florida Southern, Florida Memorial, University of Tampa, Florida Gulf Coast, Saint Leo, Florida A&M and Pepperdine, among others. For the heat sheets, click here.

Both teams will look to leave their mark on the all-time outdoor top-10 lists at USF. Fans can peruse through the men's top 10 here and the women's top 10 here to see who owns the school records the current Bulls are chasing.

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.

Welcome to the Outdoor Season
With the indoor season complete for the Bulls, the teams will prepare for the demanding outdoor schedule with a pair of home meets to kick things off along with the Bulls Invitational March 19. Although most athletes have already competed during the 2009-10 season, a handful will make their first appearance of the season this week.

A trio of athletes on the men's side are looking for big things for the spring, highlighted by freshman Kayvon Webster and Sterling Griffin in the various sprints. Those two will join the loaded sprints for the Bulls, who also boast freshman Lindsey Lamar and Derrick Hopkins - all four of who are members of the football team - along with seniors Greg Fontus and Armante Marshall in the 100 and 200. Griffin, though, will be held out of this week's meet.

After taking third at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships in the 4x400, the Bulls are primed to repeat that performance in the outdoor season. Sophomores David Aristil and Reshaw Exilien, freshman Pascal Orelus, seniors Josh Wimbley and Mikail Ebanks and even Griffin can all run the 400 and will provide incredible depth. USF is expected to compete, and possibly win, the 4x100 relay and finish in the top three in all of the sprints.

The trio of Griffin, Webster and Hopkins were three of the four athletes who had the nation's fastest high school 4x100 time at Miami Monsignor Pace in 2009 in 40.54 seconds, a time that would have ranked first in the BIG EAST. Fontus ranks third all time in the 100 and 200 at USF, while Wimbley ranks second and third in the 200 and 400 all time, respectively.

Another newcomer expected to come in and perform well right away is junior college transfer Kevin Kelly in the javelin. Kelly threw 204-5 at Reedley CC in California in 2008, a mark that ranks just two inches off the USF school record and would have placed him in the top 4 in the BIG EAST last year. Senior Tyler Perkins and sophomore Marcus Hicks will also make their season debut this weekend, as Perkins returns after competing in the NCAA Regional in the discus, where he finished ninth in 2009. Hicks, who possesses great strength, will throw the shot put and hammer. Perkins and sophomore Jared Thomas - the school record holder in the discus - will throw the discus along with the hammer.

Junior Antillio Bastian and senior Sean Young head into the outdoor campaign ranking first and second in their respective events. Bastian holds the school record in the triple jump, while Young stands second in the pole vault. Senior Michael Kursteiner, after placing fourth at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships, will look to reach the 7-foot height in the high jump.

Also making his collegiate debut for the men is freshman Sean Zuppke in the pole vault, an event in which he finished second at the high school state meet last year. Making their collegiate debuts in the outdoor campaign will be fellow vaulters Mike Vani and Wyatt Metzger. Former junior national decathlon champion and current freshman Neamen Wise will also be held out of the meet.

Welcome to the Outdoor Season, Part II
For the women, a pair of throwers will make their debuts Friday, including USF's record holder in the javelin, sophomore Casey Wagner. Wagner threw 152-8 last year at the BIG EAST Championships to set the mark, as she placed second overall. Wagner would later capture the USA Track & Field Junior National Championship and place fifth at the Pan American Junior National Championships in a whirlwind first year with the Bulls.

Sophomore Sarah Canter will throw the javelin and discus in her first meet of the season as well. Two of USF's other throwers, sophomores Lauren Noe and Atasha Warren, will switch from the weight throw and shot put from the indoor season to the shot put, hammer and discus in the outdoor campaign. Noe ranks third all-time in the hammer, while Warren stands fifth in the shot put.

The Bulls will also look to build momentum off the indoor season as USF's athletes make the transition to those same events outdoors. Sophomore Shaniel Chambers owns the second-fastest time ever at USF in the 800 meters, as she looks to surpass school record holder Bente General in 2010. The same holds true for senior Yvana Hepburn, who ranks second in the 100-meter hurdles.

Juniors Stephanie Duffy and Dana Webb will look to build off their indoor campaigns in the pole vault, as Duffy took home the BIG EAST title at the indoor championships, while Webb placed fourth. Triple jumper and senior Samantha Shade placed fourth at the meet, while freshman Monique Williams was right behind her in fifth. Freshman Tralanda Todd and junior MaShonda Rayner, who both competed in the triple jump at the indoor meet, will join the two in the jumps. In a different jump, freshman Courtney Anderson will begin her chase for the school record in the high jump, a mark she actually reached when capturing the Florida state title in 2009.

USF will also run a lot more of the sprints, including a combination Williams, Todd freshmen Ena Johnson and Dariel Jackson and junior Cinnamon Jenkins in the 4x100. Johnson will also get going in both hurdles events after winning the Florida state title in the 300 hurdles last season, while fellow freshman Robyn Oakley will also join her in the hurdles.

Sophomore Nicole Rozario begins her quest to own the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where she currently ranks second, while classmate Allie Prendergast, who had a solid indoor season in the 3,000 meters in which she shaved more than 25 seconds off her previous personal best, will look to do even better during the outdoor season.

Who's the Fastest in the BIG EAST?
With freshmen Lindsey Lamar and Derrick Hopkins taking third and fourth, respectively, in the 60 meters at the BIG EAST Championships, ESPN.com blogger Brian Bennett asked fans if Lamar and Hopkins are the fastest football duo in the conference. You can watch the two run in the finals of the 60 meters along with the 4x400 relay to see just how fast the Bulls are this year. Read Bennett's blog here.

Fans can also check out Stephanie Duffy's winning pole vault on YouTube, along with Sean Young's second-place vault and Reshaw Exilien's third-place finish in the 400, all from the BIG EAST Indoor Championships two weeks ago.

Last Time Out For the Bulls
Junior Stephanie Duffy captured the conference title in the pole vault at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships Feb. 20-21 at The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory in New York.

The Bulls finished eighth with 54 points on the men's side, while the women came in 10th with 34.5 points, just half a point off the team's best finish in five years in the BIG EAST when the Bulls scored 35 in 2008.

Several other athletes took home All-BIG EAST honors for finishing in the top 3 in their respective events. Senior Sean Young almost made it a sweep in the pole vault, as he placed second in the pole vault on the men's side.

Sophomore Reshaw Exilien placed third in the 400 meters, while he, freshman Pascal Orelus, sophomore David Aristil and senior Mikail Ebanks placed third in the 4x400 relay. In addition, freshman Lindsey Lamar took third in the 60 meter dash.

Samantha Shade in the triple jump, Michael Kursteiner in the high jump, Derrick Hopkins in the 60 meters and Dana Webb in the pole vault all came up just short of All-BIG EAST honors by placing fourth in their respective events.

Head to the Media Center page to find the links to the full recap and the results in PDF format from all of the indoor meets, 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.

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 another two-week break - with the NCAA Indoor Championships in between - before returning to the USF Track & Field Stadium for the Bulls Invitational March 19.