Marquette track and field will travel with a full squad to Macomb, Ill., for this weekend’s Lee Calhoun Invitational hosted by Western Illinois. Twenty women and 25 men from Augustana, Chicago State, St. Ambrose, Monmouth, Illinois College and Knox will compete against the Golden Eagles.
Coach Bert Rogers will use the trip to get more Big East qualifying marks, as the conference championship is three weeks away.
“This will be a tuneup for some people, while others continue to chase Big East marks,” Rogers said. “One of the things that is fun is that they run a couple relays on Friday night.”
On the mend from a hamstring injury from indoor season, junior Connor Stengel is slated to run in the men’s 400-meter and 200-meter dash. He will also run the 200-meter leg of the sprint medley relay. He ran 11.14 seconds for the 100-meter dash and 50.06 for the 400-meter dash in last weekend’s dual meet against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Stengel hopes to creep closer to his personal best of 49.32 in the 400, which he set at the Meyo Invitational last year. The Marquette men have lacked depth in their sprint squad with Stengel’s injury and without Tyler O’Brien, who graduated last year.
Sophomore Glen Lawrence is one of the men’s sprinters out to a hot start, with personal bests in the 100-meter and 200-meter races. He hopes to break the 11-second barrier for the 100-meter dash this weekend after placing third last weekend.
“Connor is finally on his way back,” Rogers said. “Training has been going very well. Fitness is starting to come around. Now it’s all about getting that sharp competition speed back. Each week he’s getting a little bit stronger, and I’m excited to have him back.”
Five women will run the 400-meter dash, and five will run the 800-meter run individually or in relays. Junior Kate Hein has the team’s fastest time on the season at 56.28 seconds for the 400. Freshman Nicole Ethier leads with 2:14.84 in the 800-meter run.
The women’s 4×800-meter relay team of Ethier, Grace Magliola, Laura Schweikert and Katie Tolan will make its debut. The women’s sprint medley relay of Hein, Chanel Franklin, Molly Hanson and Gretchen Homan will chase the school record.
Marquette will rest several runners who have already qualified for the Big East Conference Championship and those who will travel to California next week. Connor Callahan, Cody Haberkorn, Jack Hackett and Tyler Leverington will rest in Milwaukee. Junior jumper Carlye Schuh and junior thrower Kathryn Koeck will also not compete this weekend.
Action gets underway Friday at 2 p.m. with the discus throw. The sprint medley relay is the first race at 5 p.m.
