Tigers Track And Field Opens Outdoor Season

Friday, March 17

Memphis, Tenn.

University of Memphis

Rhodes College Invitational

Davon DeMoss, 2015-16 Men's Track and Field

Photo by: Nikki Boertman

Mar 16, 2017 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Memphis to compete in this weekend's Rhodes Invitational.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It seems like yesterday that the University of Memphis track and field squads were in indoor-season mode. Well, it was exactly 20 days ago for those actually counting.

Bottom line is the Tigers make a quick shift from indoor to outdoor with this weekend's Rhodes Invitational, the first outdoor meet of the 2017 season. The Rhodes Invitational is set for Friday-Saturday, Mar. 17-18 on the Rhodes College campus.

Friday's action begins at 3 p.m. (CT) with the field events. The running events follow at 5:30 p.m. (CT). On Saturday, the field events start at 10 a.m. (CT), with the running events to begin at 11:30 a.m. (CT).

The following is this weekend's meet information:

Team Scoring:
The Rhodes Invitational is a non-scoring team meet.

Tigers Tidbits/Five "What To Watch For":

Recent mo(mentum): The Tigers look to carry over momentum from a solid 2016-17 indoor campaign. At the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, the Memphis men's and women's teams combined for four individual titles and had six other performers earn All-American Athletic Conference honors. In addition, the teams combined to set six school records during the indoor season.
More mo(mentum): Memphis also brings momentum from the 2015-16 outdoor season. At the 2016 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, the men's and women's squad both had outstanding performances. The Tigers men had their second top-three team finish at the league meet in the last three seasons, coming in third with 97 points. The Memphis women were seventh with 86 points, but were just 11 points shy of a top-three finish. The 86 points scored were the most by a Tigers women's squad at a conference outdoor championships meet since 1996.
Returning champs: Memphis returns two American Athletic Conference outdoor champions from 2016. Chardae Greenlee won the women's triple jump crown, and Michael Criticos took the men's javelin title. Greenlee also earned all-conference honors in the women's long jump with a top-three finish.
Sitting out the outdoor: Entering the 2017 outdoor campaign, three performers are expected to redshirt. The trio of redshirts are LaForrest Church and Luke Vaughn on the men's side, and Martina Rodriguez Sala for the Tigers women. At the 2016 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, Vaughn won the shot put title and was runner-up in the discus (all-conference).
Postseason experience: Of the 16 NCAA Preliminaries qualifiers last year, nine return to action for the 2017 campaign. Included among the 16 is Jordan Wesner, who advanced through the preliminaries to the NCAA Championships meet in the men's high jump.