The men’s and women’s track and field teams will be competing in the highly revered EIU Mega Meet this Saturday.

Miami (Ohio), Illinois-Chicago and Northern Iowa are just a few of the teams who will appear at the meet.

“I think UIC can give our sprinters a run for our money,” said head women’s coach Mary Wallace.

“The last few years the competition has been really tough and I don’t see why this year would be any different,” said junior sprinter Brenton Emanuel.

Field events start at 9 a.m. and the running events at 10:30 a.m.

Men’s head coach Tom Akers said entries are not closed yet.

Currently around 600 athletes are running for 16 teams.

With so many schools competing, each team is limited to three individuals per event. Only one relay team per school, and two runners each for the 3K and 5K will race.

Not all of the competitors will be scored for their performances, with only athletes from Division I schools earning points. Four men’s teams and seven women’s teams will contend for points and a title, while the rest are there just for the opportunity to run.

The Mega Meet has been hosted by Eastern since 1995; however, the meet has existed for longer than that as the EIU Invitational. By 1995 the meet had grown and the program needed a “real name” for the meet, Akers said.

Hence, the Mega Meet was born.

“I do enjoy running in the Mega Meet because it is a good meet to begin the season with because it prepares you for the bigger meets we will go to.” Emanuel said.

Last season the woman’s team ran more than 20 percent of their season’s best times at the Mega Meet.

Akers attributes the success of his teams in the past to a number of factors.

“They’re (the athletes) excited it’s the first meet back, they’re still fresh, and prelims and finals are not on different days.”

Later in the season in larger meets like this one, teams will have to run preliminary races the day before.

“When athletes have to repeat their performances, there is a lot more pressure on,” Akers said.

Wallace also recognizes the “fresh legs” factor. The team hasn’t had a meet since Dec. 10 in the Early Bird Meet at Lantz Fieldhouse.

“With the last meet we had come off of a month of practice,” she said. “The kids know this is a chance to get out there and work hard, and an opportunity to set your standards.”

“We’ve had some hard practices to prepare us like usual,” said freshman hurdler and sprinter Samantha Manto.

“It (the Mega Meet) can show you how hard you really have trained leading up to this point and it also will show you if you have to put more time and effort into your training,” Emanuel said.

“This meet is very important one because it is our first meet in over a month and it is at

our house so we need to do our best in front of our peers.”