This weekend the Eastern track and field team will hit the road for the first time this season as they head to Indiana to compete in the Notre Dame Meyo Invite at South Bend, Ind.

The Panthers are coming off an impressive showing from last week’s second place finish at the Illinois Intercollegiate meet at Lantz Fieldhouse. Eastern came only four points away from the first place finisher, Illinois, on the women’s side and the men had many dominant performances in the sprint competitions.

“We had a few head to head battles in there and I’m very pleased with both are men and women’s performances, head coach Tom Akers said. “(Monday) I had everyone who set a personal best stand up and we probably had over 20 people stand up.”

Now, the Panthers will have to have a repeat performance as they go to Notre Dame to compete against some of the best talent in the nation.

Akers said there will probably be a good representation from the top conferences from around the nation.

They expect to see a number of Big Ten teams and many other top conferences in the nation. With the kind of talent and the venue they will be competing in, the Panthers will have to keep their focus on the task at hand.

For the upperclassmen that competed at the meet last season, it may not be as difficult to stay focused. However, for the newcomers, it may get hard to concentrate with all the fans and the facilities crowd noise.

“It’s nice facilities and it’s a lot of fun,” said senior distance thrower Kandace Arnold. “For the distances race, it’s cool because they start pounding on the garbage cans and it really gets your heart racing.”

Arnold competed at Notre Dame last season and had two impressive showings as she finished seventh in both the shot put and weight throw. She said she was surprised on how she finished with all of the talent that she was facing.

Arnold is looking to continue will her performances and the rest of the team will look to keep their momentum going from the previous three meets.

The meet will begin today at 7 p.m. and continue on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Bob Shaughnessy can be reached at 581-7944 or bbshaughnessy@eiu.edu.

Junior sprinter Darren Patterson massages his calf before some sprints Tuesday afternoon in Lantz Fieldhouse. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

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