Track And Field Teams Visit Florida State - AuburnTigers.com - Auburn University Official Athletic Site

Track And Field Teams Visit Florida State Seminole Invite

April 7, 2011

AUBURN - The Auburn track and field teams compete in their third meet of the outdoor season this Friday and Saturday when the Tigers visit Tallahassee, Fla., to compete in the Seminole Invitational.

A limited number of teams will compete at the meet, but competition will still be strong. Host Florida State has the nation's No. 4-ranked men's team, while the Seminole women are ranked eighth nationally. Georgia Tech is also slated to compete, as are teams from Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern and Samford, among other schools.

Auburn enters the competition with the No. 12-ranked women's team nationally, while the Tiger men are ranked 16th after two outdoor competitions. The Tigers won seven individual events while hosting the Tiger Track Classic last weekend at Hutsell-Rosen Track.

The Tigers have typically headed to Tempe, Ariz., for the Sun Angel Classic this weekend, but this year, Auburn opted to travel instead to Florida State. Head coach Ralph Spry said the Tigers enjoyed going out West but had reason to stay closer to home this year.

"The meet at Arizona State had become so large and stretched out over such a long period of time that we thought it was important to go somewhere where we could focus on our individual events during a shorter period of time while still going against good competition," said Spry. "

Spry also noted that the Tigers will continue to ease their top athletes into the outdoor season so that they build towards peaking at the end of the season.

"Last week we ran a lot of our top kids in relays, but this weekend we'll start putting them in their best individual events," said Spry. "Most of them will dig deeper and run two individual events each this weekend. The weather has been good and we're getting sharper each week, and we hope to get some solid NCAA qualifying marks this weekend, while setting ourselves up for a big meet at home the following weekend. That's when we'll try to unload and get some really fast times because there will be a lot of very good competition."

The Seminole Invitational is bookended by a pair of home meets for the Tigers, who will host the War Eagle Invitational next Friday and Saturday (April 15-16).

Complete information on the meet can be found at www.seminoles.com.