The men’s and women’s track and field teams come into the 2016-17 indoor season with a men’s Ohio Valley Conference Indoor title and a second-place OVC finish for the women from last season.

The team will be stacked with nine returning All-OVC honorees.

Returning for the men will be juniors Riley Kittridge, John Piper and Jamal Robinson and seniors Riley McInerney and Paxson Menard.

Honorees returning for the women are sophomore Jocelyne Mendoza, junior Haleigh Knapp, senior Bryn Buckwalter and redshirt senior Dhiaa Dean.

Kittridge had Eastern’s highest result in the weight throw last season with his highest throw of 52 feet, 8.75 inches at the EIU Early Bird.

Kittridge also had the furthest shotput throw for Eastern with the highest throw of 57 feet, .25 inches coming at the OVC championships.

Piper was the top 60-meter hurdler for Eastern with a time of 8.4 seconds at the Illini Classic in January.

Robinson finished last year as Eastern’s fastest 200-meter dash runner. His top time was 21.69 seconds at the OVC championships.

McInerney was Eastern’s top runner in the mile and the 3,000-meter run.

He ran the top mile in 4 minutes, 11.61 seconds and the top 3,000-meter run in 8:16.94.Menard ran Eastern’s fastest 5,000-meter run with a time of 14:39.63.

Knapp set a school record in high jump last season with a 5 feet, 11.25 inch result. Dean ran the fastest 400-meter dash time for Eastern at 58.36 seconds and the fastest 600-meter dash time at 1:32.91.

Buckwalter threw the shotput 42 feet, 11 inches at the OVC championship, placing her as the top thrower for Eastern.

She had the team’s second-furthest weight throw at 55 feet, 11.75 inches.

Eastern recruited two athletes for the men’s team this year as well. Freshmen Marcus Skinner and Colton Yeakley will compete as a distance runner and thrower, respectively.

Skinner also ran for Eastern’s cross-country team this year and participated in track and cross country in high school.

As a high school senior, he advanced to the Illinois High School Association Class 1A State Championships in three events and was a member of a 4×800-meter relay team that placed second in state.

Yeatley placed sixth in the IHSA Class 1A State Championships as a senior at Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond High School and was the runner-up in discus and shotput.

Additonal newcomers to the men’s team are freshmen Wylie Anderson, Bryce Billings, Raymond Crittenden, Austin Earp, Justin Hall, Tyler Lay, Logan Peters, Zach Phillips, Nick Phillips, Bradley Phillips and Raul Rosendo.

The women’s team will have an additional seven members from the freshman class with freshmen Mendoza, Sadie Elliott, Billi Fox, Maddy Gil, Sophia Keith, Abby Nicholson and Shannan Supan.

The 2016-17 indoor season kicks off with a home opener on Friday at the Lantz Fieldhouse.

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 581-2812 or krcordes@eiu.edu.