Coming off a successful weekend at home at last Saturday’s Hilltopper Relays, the WKU track and field squads will head to Nashville this weekend for the Vanderbilt Invitational.

“The majority of the team will be competing in Nashville,” coach Erik Jenkins said.

He said he decided to send a group of top performers — senior Joseph Chebet, junior David Mokone junior Elvyonn Bailey, junior Chris Chamness, sophomore Kamohelo Mangojeane, junior Marcus Winstead, and freshman Ja’Karyus Redwine — to the Mt. SAC relays in Walnut, Cal.

“They will all be competing in one open event (either the 100m, 200m, or 400m) and either the 4×100 or the 4×400-meter relays,” Jenkins said. “The relays on the men’s side are putting themselves in position to compete at the NCAA meet as well.”

The men’s runners are not the only people worth keeping an eye on this weekend.

“Jessica Ramsey and Satrina Olivera both went out and put themselves in position for the NCAA Regional meet,” Jenkins said in regards to the girls performances this past weekend at the Hilltopper Relays.

The throws team on both the men’s and women’s sides have been mounting a season for the record books under new throws coach Ashley Muffet-Duncan, who joined the staff for the beginning of the indoor season.

“We are on the right track to be where we need to be at the end of the season,” thrower Houston  Croney, the sole senior on the men’s throws squad, said.  “I don’t think we are peaking at our best yet, but they we are definitely on the right track leading into conference in a few weeks.”

Women’s distance coach Michelle Murphy Scott ensured that the women’s sprinters are on a similar path and have been preparing for Vanderbilt.

“We are still in the training phase, and we are not trying to peak right now,” coach Scott said.  

Scott said she has the girls focused on being in prime condition for finals around the time of the Bellarmine Classic, which is roughly two weeks before conference championships.

“We are still training through the meets, trying to figure out who has the best chance of scoring where during conference time,” she said.

The coaching staff has also been harking on intensity in training at this stage in the season.

“You obviously want to continue to work the athletes — this is not the time to sit back and take it easy,” Jenkins said. “We will do that in about three weeks.”