With one meet down and plenty more to go, the men's track teamoutdoor season looks to be a good one. Last weekend Memphisdominated The University of Arkansas-Little Rock Open in severalevents.
The Tiger sprinters took the first through fourth places in the100 meters. Franck Diadhiou won with a time of 10.52, Ivan Williamsplaced second with 10.72, Gary Nemeth, third with 10.72 and MichaelWoods finished fourth with 10.79.
In the 200 meters, Diadhiou took second with Williams takingthird.
Hurdler Landon Norris placed second in the 110 hurdles with atime of 14.50.
Adam Martin, the C-USA indoor shot-put champion won the eventagain with 55 ft 8in. toss.
The 4x100m relay team placed first with 41.00 and the 4x400mrelay team placed second with 3:16.00.
Wood, Diadhiou, Williams, Willie Green and Memeth alternatespots on the 4x100m relay team and hope to qualify for theregionals and make it to the championships in Sacramento,Calif.
Although happy with their results, they plan to concentrate onshaving time off future finishes.
"I'm happy about the performance," Diadhiou said. "But I hope todo better."
Diadhiou, now working toward completion of his master's degree,said he is counting on lowering his time, because the100m-qualification time for the regionals is now 10.50.
Woods, who missed the 2002 season due to injury, said he isready to get back on track and meet his personal goals.
"That was the first time I ran in an outdoor meet since like ayear and a half," senior Woods said. "I know I have a lot toimprove on to get back to what I used to run."
Woods said he would like to run a time of 10.40 or 10.30 in the100m and at least a 21.20 in the 200m. He said although it was apretty good start to the season they are all looking to improveeach week.
Despite finishing second in the 100m, Williams, a junior said,he could have done better, but didn't really have anything to pushhim at UALR. He said they're really concentrating on TCU, EastCarolina and Houston - the top schools in the conference.
"At that meet we didn't have that much competition," Williamssaid. "So basically we were just running against ourselves."
Regardless of the lack of competition, the Tigers said it was agood start to their outdoor season. However, in order to increasetheir overall performances, Williams said they'd be spending extratime in the weight room and becoming more focused. He also saidthey will work on driving up and increasing and decreasing theirspeed at certain points, to prevent them from running out ofenergy.
After sitting out the UALR meet due to a mild strain in hishamstring, Hays said Green would likely miss Saturday's meet aswell.
"He's improved a lot," Hays said. "But I think we need a week oftraining without a competition before I feel safe (enough) to puthim in there to sprint full speed."
Saturday the Tigers will host the Big Cat Classic at the Murphytrack complex.
