HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University track & field teams are back in action for the two-day Southern Miss Invitational, starting Friday and ending on Saturday at USM's Marshall Bell Track & Field and Soccer Complex.
 
The Southern Miss Invitational starts Friday at 2 p.m. with the hammer throw, triple jump, and javelin throw competitions while all other events will take place on Saturday. Saturday's action starts at 10 a.m. with the long jump while track events begin at 12:10 p.m. with the 3,000-meter run. Live results will be available through MileSplit.com and the host institution.
 
Southeastern will also send two of its pole vaulters, Trey Faherty and Logan McCarthy, to the Alabama-Birmingham Spring Invitational. The pole vault competition at the UAB Spring Invite is set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at the UAB Track & Field Complex. Live results of the UAB Spring Invite will be available through XpressTiming.com and the host institution.
 
SLU is looking to build off a successful opening to its outdoor season, where the Lions earned 14 podium spots and set 13 personal bests between the Lurline Hamilton Invitational at LSU and the Louisiana Classics at Louisiana-Lafayette.
 
Olu Ogunyemi ended the first full weekend of outdoor meets with the fastest time in the Southland Conference in two events, the 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles.
 
On the women's side, Esther Nwanze also holds the fastest time in the SLC in the 400-meter hurdles after the first meet of the outdoor season, a time which is also inside the top-20 in the nation as the 17^th-fastest in all of Division I.
 
Onyah Favour and Miriam Kauer both sit second in the conference with Favour having the second-best time in the 400-meter dash while Kauer holds the second-fastest time in the 200-meter dash and the fourth-fastest time in the 400-meter dash.
 
Gerrit Visser has the conference's second-best hammer throw while Josh-Ty Brown currently sits third in the Southland in the shot put.
 
Euan Lagan currently holds the third-fastest time in the SLC in the 1,500-meter run.
 
Looking to improve their marks and get into podium position spots on the SLC performance list are Jaden Bardales, who is fourth in the 200-meter dash, Victory Achakpoekri, fourth, and Javon-Taye Williams, fifth, in the 400-meter dash, and Alaina Borg, who is fourth in the high jump. Porter Gibson, Micah Miller, and Gabriel Lim are all fifth in the conference in the shot put, discus throw, and javelin throw, respectively.
 
This weekend is the only pre-conference weekend scheduled outside of Louisiana. After this weekend, the Lions make two trips to Baton Rouge sandwiched around SLU's home meet, the Strawberry Relays at the Southeastern Track Complex.
 
PODIUM CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the track and field program are encouraged to join the Podium Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Podium Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern track and field program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Track and Field, follow @LionUpTrack on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube. channel.