Marquette suited up for its first collegiate competition of the year, and the team no longer could hide its offseason training habits.,”

When the track and field team arrived at the Carthage College Invitational Friday, head coach Dave Uhrich did not know how his athletes would fare. After all, most had not practiced under their coach's watch since May 2006.

Marquette suited up for its first collegiate competition of the year, and the team no longer could hide its offseason training habits. The Golden Eagles scored a first-place finish, qualifying 11 men and eight women for the Big East Indoor Championship (to be held Feb. 17-18) and defeating rivals Wisconsin-Milwaukee and DePaul.

"It's always tough with Christmas break because you don't have any workouts for a month," Uhrich said. "But we had a nice meet. I'm pleased."

Junior Jessica Ehlen and junior Jenna Mahaffey qualified in both the weight throw and shot put. The women's cross country runners, who are coming off a strong fall season, comprise the Golden Eagles' distance runners.

Junior captain Cassie Peller, a middle distance runner, was optimistic about the squad's prospects.

"We have a really good, solid freshman core, and it's evident in their work ethic along with their talent," Peller said. "I was talking to the other two captains (Tuesday), and they said the freshmen really stick out."

Mahaffey and senior Christina Flowers captain the throwers and sprinters, respectively. Mahaffey placed in the top 10 in three events at the Big East Outdoor Championship last season.

Senior Michaela Courtney, who was the Golden Eagles' lone representative at the NCAA Championships in 2006, will miss at least two more meets because of an Achilles tendon injury. She ran the mile at the indoor championship and the 1,500-meter run outdoors at the NCAA Championships last season.

"Both teams are stronger than they were last year," Uhrich said. "We had some disappointing finishes last year. We're working every year to get a little better and trying to figure out what it takes to be successful in the Big East. We've had athletes who've won championships in Conference USA who just wouldn't have won the Big East."

Each athlete will strive to hit a certain distance, time or height to qualify for the Big East Championships. Marquette athletes will have five meets between now and Feb. 17. After that, athletes may compete in national-level competition depending on their conference championship performances.

"We've got a lot of young guys on the team, and it's too early to tell how they'll compete," said senior Brent Des Roches, one of Marquette's stronger distance runners.

With Courtney's training hampered by injuries, Peller represents Marquette's best candidate at a national bid in Fayetteville, Ind., on Mar. 9 and 10. Last year, she missed qualifying for the mile by fewer than three seconds. The junior comes into this year in better shape after a successful cross country season in which she was the Golden Eagles' top runner. She qualified for the Big East Championship Friday when she won the mile race in Kenosha with a time of 4:57.43. She said she is shooting for a time of 4:42 in the mile.

"Your general work ethic is the most important thing," Peller said. "I think we have that, and that's what you need to build a good program."

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