After having success in its lone home meet of the season, Eastern’s men’s and women’s track and field teams will be on the road again. This time the Panthers will head to Macomb for the 14th annual Lee Calhoun Memorial Invitation at Hanson Field Saturday.

Calhoun was Western’s track and field coach from 1980 until his death in 1989. He won the 110-meter high hurdles in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, becoming the only man to win the event in consecutive Olympics. Chicago State University, Northern Illinois University and the Bradley University women’s team will be a few of the schools in attendance at the memorial meet.

“This meet is a chance to honor the memory of a tremendous family man, coach, friend and athlete in Mr. Calhoun,” Mike Stevenson, head coach of the Western Illinois track and field program, said.

The Panther men will enter the meet on a roll. Eastern has won the first two meets of the outdoor season and assistant head coach John McInerney doesn’t expect a letdown this weekend. However, he cautioned it’s early in the season, and despite the early triumph, the Ohio Valley Conference isn’t won or lost until May.

“We’re coming off a nice men’s performance last week at the ‘Big Blue Classic,'” McInerney said. “It’s still early in the season and our concern is the end of April (because the Ohio Valley Conference Championship is coming up), but we are looking for a nice weekend.”

After competing in the three-day “Big Blue Classic,” which included the full slate of track and field competition, the meet at Western will not offer the long distance events. The 5,000-meter run and the 10,000-meter run are gone, which will cause seniors Jeff Jonaitis and Kyle O’Brien to run in unfamiliar territory.

“Jeff and Kyle will have to run in the 1,500-meters which isn’t their best event,” McInerney said. “They will get a break (from the longer distances) until we get closer to conference.”

Freshman Jake Stout, coming off his best meet as a Panther when he finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, will be unable to build on his success in the event. Stout has a slight foot injury and will not compete in the steeplechase. The Lockport Township graduate will still run in the shorter distances, according to McInerney.

The Panthers will count on their talented relay corps to make up points potentially lost due to injuries and lack of long distance events. Eastern won the 4×100-meter and the 4×400-meter relay and finished third in the 4×800-meter at the “Big Blue Classic.” This was all accomplished without the services of Jarrod Macklin who competed only in one of the relays last week.

“To have won the 4×400 without Jarrod Macklin shows we have nice depth in the sprints,” McInerney said. “In another week (sprinter) James Benson will be back to full strength so we will be in good shape.”

The Panther women will go into the meet hoping to build on their performance at the Big Blue Classic. The women finished in the middle of the pack, but head coach Mary Wallace believed many positives were shown.

One of those positives was sophomore sprinter Elaine Hayes, who finished seventh in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.73 seconds. The hope is Hayes, paired with standout Alicia Harris, will give the Panthers two serious threats in the sprints. That would suit Wallace just fine.

“When you look at conference, (Hayes) could really give us something to think about pairing her with Alicia,” Wallace said. “Hayes can do some things and is eager to do them.”

Another Panther to look out for is senior thrower Tiffany Greenley. The Manteno native is coming off a third-place finish in the hammer throw and Wallace expects another solid performance this weekend.

“Tiffany is going to progress on a week-to-week basis,” Wallace said. “She opened up well last week.”

Eastern has faced steep competition during the first two meets and this weekend will be no different. Northern Illinois may be the best of bunch. The Huskies finished second out of 19 teams at the Chicagoland Championships held last week at North Central College.

Northern has a star sprinter in freshman Erica Smith and also boasts a solid relay team. Despite the talented competition, Wallace isn’t looking at this meet from a win or loss perspective. She would like to see improvement from her team as they look toward the OVC Championships next month.

“We’re putting athletes out to prepare for the conference championship,” Wallace said. “No one team is a threat. We want to do the best we can and let the chips fall how they may.”