Wildcats open indoor season

ACU to compete at Texas Tech, Arkansas

LUBBOCK -- The ACU men's and women's track and field teams will get their indoor seasons underway Friday at a pair of meets in Lubbock and Fayetteville, Ark.

Most of the men's and women's teams will compete at the Wes Kittley All-Comers Classic at the Athletic Training Center at Texas Tech, while a selected few athletes will go to Arkansas where they will compete in the Razorback Invitational at Randall Tyson Indoor Center.

The headliners for the ACU men in Lubbock will be triple-jumpers Yevgen Pashchenko, Ben Washington and Vladyslav Gorbenko.  Pashchenko won the 2004 indoor and outdoor national championships in the triple jump, while Washington won the 2003 outdoor title.  ACU head coach Jon Murray has high expectations for Gorbenko, who has a personal best of 54 feet, 2.50 inches in the triple jump.

Also competing for the ACU men will be sophomore sprinter Marvin Bien-Aime, who finished second in the 200 meters at last year's NCAA Division II outdoor championships.  Bien-Aime will compete in both the 55 meters and 200 meters, and will also run on the 4x400 relay team.

The headliners for the women's team in Lubbock will be the trio of pole vaulters in seniors Katie Eckley and Val Gorter and sophomore Angie Aguilar.  Eckley won the 2003 outdoor national title, and all three earned all-America status last year at the national outdoor meet.  The Wildcats' 4x400 relay team will also try to qualify for the NCAA Division II indoor national championship meet.

In Arkansas, reigning NCAA Division II cross country national champion Nicodemus Naimadu will compete in the mile and on the distance medley relay.  The NCAA has added the distance medley relay as an event at the national indoor championship meet.

On the women's side, ACU will also compete in the distance medley relay while Brooklyn Hunt will run on the relay and in the 200 meters and 400 meters.