Eastern is sending its men and women’s track and field teams to the Billy Hayes Invitational Saturday at Indiana University.

Each team participating this weekend will be allowed three athletes per individual event and two teams per relay event. Eastern coach Tom Akers discussed Eastern’s history at this meet and who will be coming.

“We’ve been over to the Billy Hayes Invitational a number of years before, it’s generally been a pretty good meet,” he said. “This year it looks like at this point in time its just us and Indiana as Division I schools and then Vincennes junior college and a number of NAIA schools.”

Indiana plans on running everything so there is equal competition for Eastern at this upcoming invitational. Good competition is something that is needed as conference is nearing.

“We are bringing as many people as we are allowed to,” Akers said. “There is a limit in how many entries.”

Akers is still going through the lineup and could not name anyone that would not be traveling with the team this weekend. He did talk about what is needed for people on the bubble for the conference roster.

“Obviously they have to improve their performances and get up in our top four since we are only limited to four individuals per event and also I think run performances that are going to be competitive at the conference level,” he said. “I mean you may be the four person in your event but, if you are ranked 25th in conference, the likelihood of you being able to score at the OVC is slim to none.”

The conference roster is made off of other teams’ rosters and who can compete to earn the team points in each event.

“One, improve their performance and sort of their place on the team and number two, make sure that their performance ranks them in a competitive position to be a possible scorer for us at the OVC championships,” he said.

The good weather predicted for this weekend is something Akers said should contribute to performances.

“It looks like the weather is going to be great this week, we can get a great week of work in,” he said. “Looks like the weather is going to be good for the weekend, which helps with performances, so we just have to make sure we’re ready to go,” he said.

The Billy Hayes Invitational is a one-day event Saturday with field events beginning at 10 a.m. and track events at 11 a.m.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].