Jan. 25, 2012

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou track and field team will continue its indoor season this weekend as it will take part in the Bill Bergan Invitational, beginning Thursday (Jan. 26) at the Leid Recreation Center on the Iowa State campus. The three-day event will run through Saturday. The Bill Bergan combined events will be contested beginning on Thursday and finishing Friday while the bulk of the track meet will be contested on Saturday.

Starting with the combined events, a trio of Tiger men will compete in the heptathlon while a pair of Tiger women will compete in the pentathlon. Nic Ford, Tim Gillman and Ser Whitaker will compete in the heptathlon for the Tiger men while Kelcy Vanarsdall and Morgan Whitson will participate in the pentathlon. The heptathlon will be contested on both Thursday and Friday while the pentathlon will be contested all day Friday.

Following the combined events, the bulk of the track meet will begin on Saturday, beginning at 9:30 a.m., starting with the weight throw. Entries for the Tigers include Megan Collins, Cortni Ervin, Larua Greenfield and Bethany Pfeiffer while Jacob Bullinger, Brooks Mosier and Tim Opfer will compete for the men. Staying in the throws, Ervin and Greenfield will throw the shot put for the Tiger women while Mosier and teammate Patrick Fitzgerald will compete for the Tiger men.

Staying in the field events, Mizzou will have a trio of women entered in the high jump in Emilee Dailey, Camille Hackamack and Camille Hayes. On the men's side, Mitch Hatten will compete in the high jump as well. The final field event entries come in the pole vault as Heather Green will represent the Tiger women with Kyle Wessel representing the Tiger men.

Moving to the track events, the women will have entries in the short sprints as Sierra Gant will run in the 60m dash while Leslie Farmer will run in the 60m hurdles. Moving to the 400m dash, Ryan Blackwell, Kellyn Fogarty and Matt Pickerel will run for the men while Farmer and Sha'Rone Greenlaw will represent the Tiger women in the event.

Moving to the distance events, the Leid Recreation Center has long been known for providing some great marks in the distance events as it is one of the fastest indoor tracks nationally. Also, Mizzou held back many of the distance runners at last week's Illini Classic, hoping to put up some good time this weekend.

Starting the 800m run, All-Big 12 honorees Blake Irwin, Tyrell Everett and Ricky West will represent the Tiger men. On the women's side, Laura Roxberg highlights the entries as she earned All-Big 12 honors in the 1,000m on the ISU track two years ago as she has seen plenty of success on this track. Chelsea Chrisman, Allison Ross, Landon Wachter and Jasmine Webb will also run the 800m run for the Tiger women.

Moving to the mile, Roxberg once again highlights the entries for the women while Faith Summey will also look to post a good time in her first race at Leid Recreation Center. Kenny Cushing will run the mile for the Tiger men. The Tigers will also be well-represented in the 3,000m run Bailey Belvis, Aimee Bonte, Kinsey Farren and Marie O'Leary will run for the Tiger women while the men will have seven entries in the 3,000m, highlighted by senior Dan Quigley. Also running will be Phillip King, Kyle Rood, Max Storms, Hayden Legg, Merid Seleshi and Tyler Compton.

For all the latest on Mizzou track and field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MIZ_TrackField.