Eastern’s men’s and women’s track teams will host the Illinois Intercollegiate meet in Lantz fieldhouse. The event will be the third straight meet that the Panthers will be hosting.

Teams competing include the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Both teams competed at last week’s Illinois Carle/Health Alliance, with Illinois winning the meet.

Now the two teams will have to come to the Panthers’ backyard and try to repeat their performances from last week.

Assistant coach Jessica Sommerfeld said she thinks this should be a very exciting meet because of the state rivalry, but the Panthers are more concerned about winning the Ohio Valley Conference.

“I think it will be exciting because it’s always nice to go against your in-state rivals but I know our kids get really jacked up for the OVC,” Sommerfeld said.

Two-time OVC Male Track Athlete of the Week junior sprinter Darren Patterson said he will look to top his conference-best time of 22.03 in the 200-meter dash. Patterson will also be competing in the 400-meter, an event that he took third in last week.

Patterson is a junior transfer from Rend Lake College and has turned some heads in the first two meets of the season.

Patterson said when red-shirt sophomore Zye Boey returns from his injury, they will probably be the two best sprinters in the OVC. For now, Patterson and the Panthers are just focused on the upcoming meet.

The battle for the state should hold many exciting contests, but Sommerfeld said she is interested to see her team compete against teams with strong throwers.

“I think were going to have a good showing,” Sommerfeld said. “There’s going to be some tough groups – Southern Illinois has a lot of good throwers. We have our fights to fight. There’s definitely some teams with some good sprinters, so it will be a good indication of where we’re at in this point of the season.”

On the women’s side, the Panthers will have senior thrower Kandace Arnold competing in throws.

Arnold is coming off an impressive showing at last weeks Mega meet when she won both the weight throw and the shot put. She will compete against strong opponents such SIUE’s Breanna Branson.

After Saturday, the Panthers will not return home until Feb. 19, when they host the EIU Friday Night Special.

During the two weeks between, Eastern will travel to South Bend, Ind. for the Notre Dame Meyo Invite and Ames, Iowa for the Iowa State Meet.

Bob Shaughnessy can be reached at 581-7944 or

[email protected]