Friday Heat Sheets|Big Ten Release
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue track and field teams are set to open the 2015 Big Ten Indoor Championships this weekend. The two-day meet starts Friday at 10 a.m. ET with the multi events. The Boilermakers look to improve upon last year's fifth place finishes on both men's and women's sides. The men totaled 61 points a year ago, while the women had 53.
Entering the championships, the Boilermakers have seven marks or times that rank second in the conference. Devynne Charlton is among them, as she has the No. 2 mark in the conference in the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles. Carmiesha Cox has the No. 2 time in the 200m dash.
Moussa Conde and Tim Deal get things started for the Boilermakers with the heptathlon. The freshman pair will start with the 60m dash at 10 a.m., before moving onto the long jump. Addison Hall is the first Purdue woman to compete, as she is in the pentathlon. Her first event is the 60m hurdles, which will begin at 10:50.
Friday is also filled with trials. Katie Hoevet leads the women into the mile trials, while Symone Black and Aarin Jones will look to qualify in the 400m. The first finals event of the championships is women's pole vault, which is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Jacqueline Williams and Jessica Harter will compete for the Boilermakers and both are tied for ninth in the conference on the performance list.
The men's pole vault, men's and women's shot put and men's and women's long jumps are also among the finals events that take place on Friday. The men's and women's 3k, 5k and distance medley relays finals are also Friday.
On the men's side, Tyler Askew and Anaquan Peterson will be among the top Boilermakers competing Friday. Both rank among the top three in the conference in the long jump. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi will compete in the shot put Friday. He has the 18th-best mark in the country and third-best in the Big Ten.
Among the excitement in the weekend will be the men's weight throw, and the women's sprints. In the weight throw, Enekwechi will go head-to-head with Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin, as well as a handful of other top-25 throwers in the country. Enekwechi and Lihrman are the only two throwers in NCAA Division I history to throw 80 feet or better, and just two of three at any NCAA level. That event is scheduled for Saturday at 1:45 p.m. In the women's sprints, the Boilermakers have the conference's deepest unit, especially in the 60m dash. Purdue has four of the top 10 60m dashers in the conference.
The full meet schedule and heat sheets can be found at the top of the page.
BTN will air taped-delayed coverage of the Big Ten Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 8.
Follow all the action on the Game Day Central page at PurdueSports.com on the track page. Also, follow the action on Purdue's official Twitter feed @PurdueTrackXC. A full recap will be posted to PurdueSports.com at the conclusion of each day of action.