BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of South Alabama track and field squad will close out the indoor portion of its regular-season spring schedule this weekend at the Samford Invitational held at the Birmingham Crossplex.

"The athletes are making steady progress in training," head coach Paul Brueske said.  "We want to see that translate into meet performance.  We have some athletes that are in shape and ready to perform well.  They just need to go out and do it."

The meet comes less than a week after South hosted the Jaguar Invitational where multiple student-athletes had stand-out performances and set personal or season bests.

Junior Matt Weinhold, tabbed as the league's male field athlete of the week, comes off a record-breaking performance where he set the school mark in shot put for an indoor season.  This mark puts Weinhold fifth in the league in shot put with teammate Thomas Boyd ranked seventh in the same event.

Ethan Boyd Ethan currently ranks one spot behind his brother in eighth, while Jan-Louw Kotze (fifth) and Jobi Finau (ninth) are ranked close behind him in weight throw for the Sun Belt. 

Katheho Dyoyi and Laura Labushaigne also received the conference honor sweeping the men's and women's track athletes of the week.  Dyoyi claimed the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference after placing second in the mile at the Jaguar Invitational setting a personal best time of 4:10.17 seconds.  Labuschaigne placed third after crossing the finish line at 2:15.00 in the women's 800m and her time now ranks as fourth best in the league.

Kaitlyn Beans and Rafael Scott were the two lone Jaguars to win an event last weekend.  Beans earned a victory in the women's triple jump with a 12.79m jump and placed second in the women's long jump with a 5.82m mark.  She stands first in the league in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump.  Scott's victory was his second of the indoor season with a 21.46-second finish in the 200m and heads into the weekend third in the event for the conference and tied for first in the 60m. He currently stands in a three-way tie for second in the nation in the 60m with a time of 6.59 seconds.

Sean Collins, Chris Taylor and Preston Morrison are all ranked in the conference's top 10 in the men's pole vault with Collins leading the trio in second.  Collins and Morrison registered top five performances in the men's pole vault last week finishing second and fifth, respectively at the event.. 

Three Jaguars, Beans, Labuschaigne and Szabo will attend the Music City Challenge on Friday and Saturday as individuals in Nashville, Tenn., hosted by Vanderbilt.

The Samford Invitational field events are slated to begin at 9 a.m. with the women's weight throw with the women's 60m hurdle trials set two hours prior to begin the running events. Live stats are available here. 

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
 
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