The Syracuse track and field team will have the familiarity and comfort of competing at home in the Syracuse Invitational this Friday. The meet will serve as one last chance for some members of the team to qualify for the Big East Championships.

The invitational begins at 3 p.m. at the indoor track at Manley Field House.

Martin Semenowicz, a senior sprinter, will try to qualify in the 200-meter dash today, along with sophomore sprinter, Lori Robinson, who will try to qualify in the 500-meter run.

Assistant coach Dave Hegland said for some of the runners, throwers and jumpers that have already qualified for the Big East of the IC4A championships, this meet serves as a confidence booster or a ‘tuneup’ before the big races to come later this month.

For juniors Ramon Sosa and Marcus Vaughn, who have both already qualified for the Big East Championships, the meet at home will serve as a chance to work on their technique in the 55-meter hurdles. The Big East normally competes in the 60-meter hurdles, but the straight-aways at Manley Field House track are shorter.

‘This is a very low-pressure meet,’ Sosa said. ‘There are not many teams so we are using this to just work on our races.’

This is the second of two home meets for the Orange this winter. Being home gives SU an advantage because it already knows how the track feels and what type of starting blocks they will use. Also, the worries of sleeping in a different place or eating different food will not affect their performances.

‘I feel like the team is real comfortable with this track,’ Hegland said. ‘They run on it every day and know how it affects their bodies. This is a great opportunity for us to run some real fast races.’

‘This could be the last chance for a lot of people to qualify for the bigger meets coming up,’ Vaughn said. ‘We opened some eyes last weekend at the Penn State National Open around the conference. We’re just looking a lot better than last year as a conference contender, so it would be great to get more people to qualify.’

Vaughn placed seventh last year in the 60-meter hurdles at the Big East Indoor Championship with a time of 8.35 seconds.

‘The Big East Championships is the first real meet where all the teams come together to compete against one another,’ Hegland said. ‘That is what we are looking forward to. Last weekend at Penn State helped us to see who we will be competing against. This weekend is to build confidence, put some finishing touches on certain events and get ready to see those people again.’

Some of the athletes that competed last weekend in the Penn State National Open will not compete in order to give their legs a week off, and because they already qualified for the Big East Championships.

‘We really want to use the past two weekends to help us,’ Hegland said. ‘We want to use that momentum to spring board into the Big East.’

Published on February 1, 2007 at 12:00 pm