With only one open meet and the Drake Relays left in the outdoor track season, Eastern is looking confident and ready for the Ohio Valley Conference conference meet.

This week Eastern is sending 26 of the athletes to compete in Des Moines, Iowa at the Drake Relays. It is a competition spanning three days, starting on Thursday and ending on Saturday.

Eastern is having athletes competing in a majority of the events at the relays. Starting on Thursday, sophomore middle distance runner Michaels Brown and senior distance runner Julie James will run the men’s and women’s 800 meter run to start off Eastern in events. Both had good showings at the meet last week at the University of Illinois where Brown took fourth in the 800-meter run and James taking first in the 800 meter.

Also at last week’s meet there were 19 top-five finishers for Eastern. Junior Chrisford Stevens earned two top spots, one in the triple jump with a third-place finish and the other in the long jump with a fourth-place finish.

In the throwing events Eastern had sophomore Adam Kessler and senior Riley Kittridge both taking top-five spots in the shot put. Kessler took fourth with a throw of 55’2” and Kittridge took fifth with a throw of 54’11.50”.

At the Drake Relays, Eastern is having a handful of field competitors led by junior high jumper Haleigh Knapp, senior throwers Bryn Buckwalter in the disc and Kittridge in shot put, and Kessler in the shot put as well.

Finishing up on Saturday, Eastern will have runners competing in a variety of relays and field events. The pair of senior distance runners Ruth and Rachel Garippo will compete in the women’s steeplechase. Then senior sprinter Jamal Robinson, sophomore Michael Miller, and junior Lars Ott will all be in the men’s sprint medley relay for Eastern.

The final meet for the team will take place in Bloomington, Ind. at Indiana’s Billy Hayes meet Friday, May 5. Then the team has the OVC outdoor conference meet to end the season.

Alex Hartman can be reached at 581-2812 or at aihartman@eiu.edu