WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue track and field teams head to Notre Dame for the third time in five weeks for Saturday's Alex Wilson Invitational. The meet will serve as the Boilermakers' final tune up ahead of next weekend's Big Ten Championships.
The Boilermakers will travel a smaller group with just 23 individuals making the trip. The men's team will send 10, while the women have 13 individuals competing. The meet is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday with the women's weight throw, men's long jump, women's pole vault and women's 60-meter hurdles prelims.
On the men's side, the Boilermakers will be led by Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who will focus solely on the shot put. Enekwechi currently sits 18th in the country with a season-best of 19.22m (63-0.75) and will look to try to crack the top 16 in the country, which is the magic number to qualify for the NCAA Championships at the end of the season. Currently, the 16th-best mark in the country is 19.32m (63-4.75).
Tyler Askew will also look to move up the NCAA lists this weekend, especially in the long jump. Askew is a top-10 jumper in Purdue school history and currently ranks 43rd in the country in the event with a season-best mark of 7.45m (24-5.50). His distance is eight and a half inches outside the top-16 in the country.
On the women's side, the distance medley relay team will compete for the first time this season, while the 4x400m relay team will try to improve upon their school record. Symone Black will also compete in the 400m dash where she has the team's top time this season. Black's mark of 54.29 seconds ranks seventh in the Big Ten this season and was run on the Meyo track at Notre Dame two weeks ago.
Vanessa McLeod is scheduled to compete in the 800m run, where she is working her way back to form. McLeod, a redshirt sophomore for the indoor season, has the sixth-best time in the Big Ten this season with a mark of 2:08.64. She was the Big Ten champion in the event as a true freshman in 2013. Cierra Brown will compete in the triple jump, where she was an indoor All-American last season. Her PR is 13.00m, which came last season, and that mark would rank 11th in the country this season. This season, her best is 12.71m (41-8.50), which ranks 36th in the country.
Full heat sheets can be found at the top of the page.
The meet will be streamed live by FloTrack at http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/251992-Notre-Dame-Alex-Wilson-Invitational-2015. Live results will be provided by Delta Timing at DeltaTiming.com. A full recap and results will be posted to PurdueSports.com following the meet.