University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Track & Field Releases 2017 Schedule
12/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field/Cross Country
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss track and field head coach Jon Stuart announced the program's schedule for the 2016-17 season Monday afternoon, which will include a pair of home outdoor meets.
The Golden Eagles will be hosting the Southern Miss Invitational (Mar. 31- Apr.1) and Southern Miss Open (Apr. 28-29).
"I'm particularly excited to add home track meets to the schedule so that our friends, family and fans will have more opportunities to see the Golden Eagles in action," said Stuart. "We have a great combination of experienced veterans and dynamic newcomers that we are excited to showcase this season.
The Golden Eagles open the indoor season with two meets taking place at the Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. The first, the Blazer Invitational opens the slate on Jan. 13, followed by the Vulcan Invitational on Jan. 14. The team then hits the road to compete in the Vanderbilt Invitational (Jan. 20-21) in Nashville.
Southern Miss closes out the indoor season with two more meets at the Birmingham Crossplex. Those meets will be hosted by South Alabama on Feb. 5, and by Samford on Feb.10.
The Golden Eagles head back to Birmingham for the C-USA Indoor Championships, Feb. 18-19, which will be hosted by UAB. The indoor season wraps up with the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, being hosted by Texas A&M (Mar. 10-11).
The outdoor season begins a month later at the Mississippi Relays in Starkville, Miss. on March 17-18. Following the MSU Relays, the team will travel to Tallahassee, Fla. to compete in the Florida State Relays on Mar. 24.
The team gets to stay in Hattiesburg the next weekend and compete in the first of two home meets, the Southern Miss Invitational, on Mar. 31- Apr. 1.
Southern Miss then takes to the road to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama Invitational before heading down to Mobile, Ala. for the South Alabama Invitational (Apr. 13-15).
UTEP will host the outdoor 2016 Conference USA Championships set for May 11-14. The NCAA Regional will be in Lexington, Kentucky (May 25-27), followed by the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon on June 7-10.
Quotes from the coaching staff:
"Our schedule will allow us to compete against some of the best competition in the country, which in turn, will prepare us for the C-USA Championships, the preliminary rounds of NCAAs and the NCAA Championships which are set to be held in Eugene, Ore."- head coach Jon Stuart
"Looking forward to carrying the momentum from the cross country season into the spring indoor and outdoor seasons. The depth of the distance squad this year really opens up what we can do at the C-USA Championships." - cross country/assistant coach Aaron Kindt
"We are always excited about our schedule. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by so many talented teams that we can't help but run into some of the best competition in the country each week. Training has been long and tough, so we are ready to start competing and preparing for our conference championships. The jumps group is very young, six of them are freshman, so it is very important for me as their coach to learn how we handle both success and defeat. My group has shown tremendous growth so far in training and we are all excited to get going in a few weeks." - assistant coach John Ellis
"I am fired up about this upcoming season for both my throws squad and the entirety of the USM track team. The preseason has been a lot more intense this year, our kids have really come together as a united force. We have added diversity and depth in the throws area, which has results in an ultra-competitive practice environment."- assistant coach Jennifer Svoboda
