Head coach Mary Wallace and her team are ready for the one meet that Eastern has been preparing for all season: the Ohio Valley Conference championship in Nashville, Tenn.

The Panthers have never won the women’s OVC indoor championship since its creation in 1983.

“Looking at the rankings there will be four teams, Southeast Missouri, Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, and us who will be very close,” said women’s head coach Mary Wallace.

Last year’s conference champ was Southeast Missouri, while Eastern placed third.

Tennessee State’s head coach Chandra Cheeseborough said her team’s goals are “just to get out there and have a good meet.”

She is expecting to see her athletes place in finals especially in the sprints and throws this weekend.

“It’s going to come down to who can get the job done on the weekend,” Wallace said.

Freshman Jessica Blondell is optimistic about the distance medley relay.

“We have a pretty solid group of girls for the DMR,” she said.

Fellow distance runner and sophomore Kirsten Bosnak hopes to be able to perform and score points for the team.

“As far as the team goes, we hope to get in the top three,” she said.

Wallace will be depending on her returning athletes to bring their best to the track. “Nicole Flounders is ready to run really fast in her event,” said Wallace about the junior distance runner.

Assistant coach Nate Davis, who helps with the team’s jumpers, will also be expecting big things from his more experienced members of the squad. Junior Nicolene Galas will be leading the competition in pole vault going into the weekend. She currently is tied with former Eastern jumper Mary Wood for the OVC record vault of 12 feet.

The freshmen will be looked upon to produce points for Eastern this weekend as well.

Vicki Dzura, Jenna Uhe, and Nicole Walcott set personal records and moved themselves up in the rankings last week with their jumps in the triple and long jumps at the Friday Night Special in Lantz Fieldhouse.

“The jumpers are coming out on a really nice wave of improvements,” Wallace said about the trio of freshman.

With teams sending 400-meter runners who can produce times in the 57-second range, 200-meter dashers in the 25-second range, 800 runners in the 2:20s and 4x 400 teams putting out 3:50s the team will need to be performing at peak to achieve their goal.

With times dropping, distances growing, and a roster full of excited athletes the women of Eastern are in a spot to capture its first ever OVC indoor championship.

“The ultimate goal is always to win,” Wallace said.

Competition starts Friday and concludes Saturday in the Gentry Center at Tennessee State.