O’Brien Stadium will play host to its lone track and field event this season this Thursday as the tradition-rich “Big Blue Classic” begins at 9 a.m.

According to women’s head coach Mary Wallace, the Big Blue Classic is one of the most important track and field events of the year because it is the only home meet.

“It’s not the biggest event of the year because that is saved for the conference meets,” Wallace said. “Our athletes do look forward to it. Anytime a student-athlete can perform in front of a home crowd it is important.”

Because of the familiarity of the home track, the Big Blue Classic is an event that can produce personal or season best runs for the athletes.

In the 2001 classic, then-sophomore James Benson had one of his better meets of the year. The Champaign native had his fastest 100-meter dash time (10.64 seconds) of the season and impressed in the prelims with a time of 10.83.

Jarrod Macklin had an equally impressive day back in April of 2001. As a sophomore, Macklin posted his personal best in the 200-meter dash with a winning time of 20.90. He also put up his fourth-fastest time of the season in the 400-meter dash with a 48.21 finish.

On the women’s side, sophomore Nicole Millici was the star of the 2001 ‘Classic.’ The middle-distance runner finished second in the 800-meter dash with a time of two minutes 17.80 seconds, just over three seconds off Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Dot McMahon’s track record time of 2:13.57.

Now seniors, Benson, Macklin and Millici will all be back at the “Big Blue Classic” this weekend to try to eclipse those times and set new records. Wallace hopes that running on the home track will bring out the best the Panthers have.

“It’s possible that the athletes could do their season’s best,” Wallace said. “But it is only the second meet (of the outdoor season) so we’re looking for our best performances at conference. It’s not something we expect, but we do expect them to perform well.”

The Panthers usually do perform well at the “Big Blue Classic” and one of the reasons why is the partisan home crowd. Wallace is looking forward to a big turnout from the Eastern faithful to help lead the Panthers to another strong finish.

“Definitely, the crowd plays a role in how the team does,” Wallace said. “Anytime you can perform in front of a home crowd it is much easier on the team.”

The Panthers will enjoy the home-track advantage because of the tough competition coming to Charleston. Athletes from the following universities; Indiana State, Illinois State, Ball State, Western Illinois, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Bradley are all slated to appear.

“It will be exciting,” Wallace said. “There will be a lot of great competitors.”