Track & Field To Open Southland Conference Outdoor Championship Friday

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NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans track and field teams will look to continue its record-setting ways over the weekend when the Privateers travel to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the 2016 Southland Conference Championship from May 6-8 at Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer & Track Stadium.

The SLC Championship begins on Friday with the opening four events of both the men's decathlon and women's heptathlon as well as the men's and women's hammer and 10,000-meter run, the women's pole vault and women's javelin. The event continues on Saturday with the final events of the decathlon and heptathlon, the bulk of the preliminary running events and the finals of the men's and women's shot put, triple jump and 3,000-meter run, women's high jump and men's javelin.

The conference championship will conclude on Sunday with the men's and women's discus, 4x100 and 4x400 relays, 100-, 200-, 400-, 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meters runs, 400-meter hurdles as well as the women's 100-meter hurdles, men's 110-meter hurdles, men's high jump and men's pole vault.

"We're going to take a select squad, as most teams do, of those who can actually contribute at the conference level," UNO head coach Benjamin Dalton said. "You have to make the team. This isn't a guarantee. And I like it being that way. It should be an earned privilege. Everybody who is going has a chance to score and that is everybody's charge, no matter what event or who it is. Our heavy hitter or our big guns, they've got to do what we came to do and that's walk home with a gold medal. If everybody lines up and does what they're supposed to on the right day, we'll be good to go."

Through 10 outdoor meets in 2016, the Privateers have set four school marks and several have logged marks that rank among the top 20 individual efforts in New Orleans track and field history. Headlining the record setters to date is freshman Michael Nicholls, who set or tied the previous school record in the men's 110-meter hurdles four times already, including the current mark of 13.95 as the LSU Alumni Gold the last time out on April 23.

In addition, sophomore Nick Schiro set the UNO record in the men's hammer with a toss of 39.79 meters at the Tulane Twilight Invitational on March 4, senior Callie Willcox in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase with an 11:38.39 at the John Mitchell Alabama Relays on March 19 and junior Fadeke Adeola in the women's high jump with a leap of 1.75 meters at the Cowboy Relays on March 12.

The Privateers' 2016 record setters are four of seven members of the current team to hold UNO career records as the junior trio of Michael Batson (men's 800), Alexia Fortenberry (women's 100 hurdles, women's 400 hurdles) and Farydah Inoussa (heptathlon) set school records last season.

UNO is one of 12 teams men's teams participating in the Southland Conference Championship, joining Abilene Christian, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, Lamar, McNeese State, Northwestern State, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana, Stephen F. Austin and host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Those 12 teams, plus Nicholls, will take part in the women's competition.

"The Southland Conference, when you go back and look over the last five or six years, is actually very tough," Dalton added. "In the 100, we've had Justin Walker who won at 9.95. Right now, we have a girl running 53.2 in the 400. People aren't messing around. The conference is very strong.

"We have big schools in Texas and Louisiana, which is obviously a speed haven in terms of the U.S. It's exceptionally tough. It's always going to be a battle when we get out there. All we have to do is to replicate what we do every single day in practice. If we can do that, we'll be absolutely fine because they're all ready."

In the previous two trips to the Southland Conference Track & Field Championship, New Orleans has seen steady improvement on the women's side as the team finished 14th with 18 points in2014 and 10th with 29 points in 2015. The men, meanwhile, posted back-to-back 11th-place finishes. Last season, the Privateers took home three conference titles as Batson won the men's 800 with a time of 1:50.60, Fortenberry won the women's 100 hurdles with a school-record time of 13.14 and Inoussa won the heptathlon with 5,168 points.

Live results for the 2016 SLC Championship are available by clicking HERE and live video streaming can be viewed by clicking HERE. Based on the results of the weekend and other conference-championship events around the country, several Privateers will have the opportunity to participate in the NCAA Regionals, and the individual efforts there can earn a spot in the NCAA Championship.