April 27, 1999

Columbia, Mo. - Missouri track and field hosts the 3rd annual Missouri Invitational this Saturday, May 1 at the Audrey J. Walton Track Soccer Staduim begining at 9 am. Nebraska, Kansas State, and Southern Illinois-Carbondale will visit MU for the meet.

The Tiger track squad hosts this weekend's event after completeing a successful weekend of competition at the Drkae Relays and UMKC Invitational. At Drake Missouri's men's sprint relay and 4x800m relay brought home first place awards and several men's and women's relay groups also posted strong marks. Sophomore Katie Meyer finished first in the 1500m with a season best time of 4:28.46, four seconds short of the provisional qualifying standard. Seven other Missouri athletes posted season best marks this past weekend as well. Tracey Holloman (javelin), Jill Osenbaugh (long jump), Carla Grewe (shot put), Dan Dellegrazio (1500m), Jason Franken (800m), Jared Pinkston (1500m), Steve Wade (3000m Steeplechase).

The meet will be the second U.S. Collegiate Track and Field Series event hosted this outdoor season by MU. The series was implemented by the United States Track and Field Coaches Association in an effort to develop extended media coverage, increase attendance, and create a team scoring concept. The meets are held around the country throughout the outdoor season placing two to four teams in head-to head competition. In 1999 one hundred thirty-seven teams from the nation's colleges and universities will be competeing in the U.S. Collegiate Track and Field Series.

All four schools will participated in multiple Collegiate Series meets this year, Missouri hosts its second meet of the year Saturday and will take part in the Collegiate Series meet hosted by Michigan on May 8. Nebraska's schedule includes four Collegiate Series meets, Kansas State competes in three meets, and Southern Illinois is part of two Collegiate Series in '99.

HOPSON NAMED TO NCAA FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Missouri junior long jumper William Hopson has been named has been selected to participate un the third annual NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference to be held May 31-June 4 at Disney's Wide World of SPorts and Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The mission of the conference is, through challenging and thought-provoking dialouge and activities, to prepare a diverse group of student-athletes to take an active leadership role on their campuses and in their communities. It will provide NCAA student-athletes with the opportunity to disucss and explore critical issues facing them: to enhance their leadership skills: and to promote better communication among student-athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty and communities. A total of 300 student-athletes have been invited to attend. Student-athletes were nominated by member institutions that participate in the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program. Hopson was selected from approximately 850 nominations. William is also one of 36 NationsBank Community Champions from the Big 12 Conference. Each Big 12 school nominates their athletes for three spots to represent the school as Community Champions. Hopson joins women's basketball forward Julie Helm and football quarterback Corby Jones as MU's representatives. Along with being an all-Big 12 selection last year indoors on the track, Hopson is one of MU's most active student-athletes off the track making appreances as a guest speaker throughout the Columbia and Central Missouri area. NationsBank will now select one athlete of the 36 Community Champions as the Community Champion fo the Year.

MISSOURI COACHING STAFF

Head coach Rick McGuire is in his 16th season at Mizzou. He came to Columbia in 1983 as the women's coach and assumed the men's team responsibilities as well in 1988. While at Mizzou, McGuire has coached come 52 All-Americans, two NCAA individual champions and 51 conference individual and relay champions. Assistant coach Jeff Pigg is in his nineth year at Missouri, coaching the distance runners and cross country teams. This past fall he led both the men's and women's cross country teams to the NCAA Championships for the first time in school history. Pigg is a three-time NCAA Midwest Region Cross Country Coach of the Year. Assistant Coach Natasha Brown is now in her sixth year as a full-time assistant coaching the Tiger sprinters. As a Mizzou athlete, Natasha was a six-time All-American and a five-time Big 8 champion. She also brings her experience from international competition as a silver mealist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and as a World Champion as amember of the 1,600m relay team at the 1993 World Championships. Assistant coach Brett Halter coaches MU's throwers for the second season as a full-time assistant, his sixth with the Missouri program. In just the last three years, Mizzou's throwers have established eight school records, have earned two conference championships and earned All-American status three times.

HEARNES FIELDHOUSE RENNOVATED

In late 1998, the Hearnes Building Fieldhouse received a major facelift for track seasons to come. It now features a Martin ISS-2000 enscapulated, polyurethane surface for a six lane, 200 meter track. The resurfacing and updating of the facility has escalated it into a top-notch indoor track environment. Now along with the Audrey J. Walton Track and Soccer Complex, Missouri Tiger track has two teriffic homes for its program.