Tucson, Ariz. – The University of Arizona Wildcat men’s and women’s track and field teams will host the 2015 Jim Click Shootout this weekend at Roy P. Drachman Stadium. The combined events portion of the meet will take place on Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s competition begins at 11 a.m. MST while Friday it starts at 10 a.m. MST. Saturday, the standard portion of the meet, starts with field events at 9 a.m. MST while the track events start at 12:30 p.m. MST.
Arizona will compete against USC from the Pac-12, LSU (M: 4, W: 15) from the SEC and then Illinois and Purdue from the Big Ten.
The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association (USTFCCCA) release the week one outdoor rankings on April 6. Arizona’s men and women are not ranked. In the Pac-12 on the men’s side, Oregon is third, USC is 5th, Stanford is 17th, Arizona State is 20th and UCLA is 22nd. For the women’s side, the Pac-12 is represented in the rankings by Oregon who is No. 6, USC is at No. 7, Stanford sits at the No. 11 spot and UCLA is No. 19.
For the heptathlon on Thursday and Friday, Arizona will be represented by sophomore Alyssa Thompson, sophomore Aleah Hurst and freshman Tiana Bonds. In the decathlon, redshirt junior Pau Tonnesen, junior Harrison Ivie, freshman Myles Hawkins, freshman Dion Shattuck-Baker and freshman Erik Mensendiek will compete for Arizona.
On the track on Saturday for the women, junior Molly Callahan will run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The women’s 4x100-meter relay team will consist of freshman Savaughn Christman, freshman Tatum Waggoner, junior Traci-Lynn Hicks and sophomore Bealoved Brown. Senior Elvin Kibet and junior Hanna Peterson will compete in the 1,500-meter race. Hicks will also represent the Wildcats in the 100-meter hurdles.
Arizona will have five student-athletes in the women’s 400-meter sprint, junior Gia Trevisan, sophomore Jasper Gray, Waggoner, sophomore Lizzie Smith and freshman Diana Gajda. Freshmen Claire Green, Katelin Warren and Alex Berman will run the 800-meter race. For the women’s 400-meter hurdles, what head coach Fred Harvey labeled one of the best races in the country outside of the NCAA Championships, will feature Wildcat juniors Nnenya Hailey and Morgan Struble.
Brown, Waggoner and five others will compete in the women’s 200-meter dash. In the women’s 3K, Arizona will run seniors Stephanie Bulder and Kristina Aubert along with junior Daylee Burr. The women’s 4x400-meter relay quartet consists of Brown, Smith, Waggoner and Hailey.
For the women’s field events, Hicks will long jump as well. In the women’s high jump, Arizona will be represented by senior Shakayla McEaddy and sophomore Lisanne Hagens, both making their season debuts.
On the men’s side on the track, senior Kenji Bierig and three others will represent Arizona in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. In the men’s 4x100-meter relay, UA’s quartet will be freshman Tyrell Johnson, senior Mohammad Alhasan, junior Blake Eichler and freshman Ty Brandt. Senior Sam Macaluso will lead a group of three other Wildcats in the 1,500-meter race. Senior Pete Lauderdale II, sophomore Bryce Houston and Eichler will compete in the 400-meter race. For the men’s 100-meter sprint, Johnson will make his season debut and Alhasan will also compete in the 100 meters.
Sophomore Collins Kibet will run the 800-meter race along with seven other Wildcats. Sophomore Miles Parish will compete in the 400-meter hurdles. Eichler and Alhasan will also run the 200-meter dash. The men’s 4x400-meter relay team will be Eichler, Lauderdale, Houston and Parish.
Senior Daniel Whitham will throw hammer with two other Wildcats. Redshirt sophomore Jonny Giess will throw the javelin. Whitham and sophomore Aaron Castle will compete in the shot put. Castle and sophomore Gerhard De Beer will also throw the discus. Junior Jovon Cunningham
UA alumna Georganne Moline made her outdoor debut at the Florida Relays on April 3. She posted a time of 52.08 in the 400-meter sprint, good for first place in her section and fourth place overall.
The Wildcats sent a group of distance runners to the Stanford Invitational on April 3-4. It was a successful weekend indeed, Kibet posted a time of 32:57.00 in the 10K, fifth among collegiate competitors and the No. 5 time in the country. Aubert had a time of 33:47.66 in the 10K, the No. 19 time in the country. Macaluso won his section of the 5K with a time of 14:06.51. Kibet posted a personal-best time of 3:43.86 in the men’s 1,500-meter race, the fourth-best time in the country.
A complete recap and results will be available at ArizonaWildcats.com after each day of competition. Also follow @ArizonaTrack on Twitter for live updates from the meet. Live results for the meet can be found here - http://athletics.arizona.edu/tfstats/tf/ .
