Feb. 23, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University men's and women's track teams head to Nashville, Tenn., for the 2006 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday. The two-day event, set for Feb. 24-25, at Tennessee State's Gentry Center in Nashville, Tenn., will feature seven men's teams and 10 women's teams.

"We're going in looking like a middle of the pack team," said Samford head coach Glenn McWaters. "If we do really well in a few events we can move up, if we do average then we'll finish in the middle of the pack, at about fifth. So we're just going to go up there and see how we can do."

Both the Bulldog men and women finished fourth at the 2005 Indoor Championships, while the Eastern Illinois men and Southeast Missouri women won the 2005 titles.

Samford has been lead during the 2006 indoor season by Mark Holmes and Laura Malnati, who were named Male and Female Field Athlete of the Week following their performances at the Clemson Tiger Invitational on Feb. 10-11. Holmes was named All-OVC in 2005 following his second place performance in the pole vault, while Malnati finished fourth overall in the high jump.

Holmes was named Male Field Athlete of the Week following his school record performance of 15'07.00'' in the pole vault to finish fourth overall and second among collegiate athletes at the Clemson Tiger Classic. Holmes broke his own school record of 15'01.00'', set at the 2005 OVC Indoor Championships. As of Feb. 20, the Niceville, Fla., native now ranks second on the 2006 OVC best list following his performance in Clemson.

Malnati won the high jump with a leap of 5'06.00'' at the Clemson Tiger Classic and tied her own school record, set in 2005. The Danbridge, Tenn., native is currently tied for second on the OVC best list.

The Bulldogs have a number of other athletes at the top of the OVC best lists as well. A total of nine men and 11 women are in the top-ten of their respective events.

Competition gets underway at 2:00 p.m. Central on Friday and resumes on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. CT. Results will be available at www.ovcsports.com upon the completion of each day's events.