DC Set for 12th-Annual Dick Small Invitational on Saturday

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College will host the 12th-Annual Dick Small Invitational on Saturday, March 24 inside Coressel Stadium. The event will be the first of two home track and field competitions hosted by DC this season and will feature nearly 600 athletes from 15 teams. All fans will be admitted free of charge.

The 15-team event is set to begin at 10:00 am with the final round of field events commencing at approximately 1:00 pm. Athletes will be competing in 23 total events, including 14 running and nine field competitions.

The Yellow Jackets had an outstanding indoor season and opened with 2007 outdoor campaign in style last weekend with a strong showing at the University of Cincinnati Relays.

Kristyn Tooley will lead Defiance on the women’s side along with a crop of standout freshmen competitors in the field events. Tooley is coming off a pair of top-10 performances at the University of Cincinnati, highlighted by posting the fifth-best score in DC history in the triple jump with a leap of 32-07.00.

All-Ohio performer, Samantha Higdon, will join fellow freshmen standouts Jessica Lipstraw, Laura Derov and Amanda Tooley to pace the Jackets in the throwing events.

On the men’s side, All-Ohio performer, Trevor Matuszak, will be leading things off in the hammer throw at 10:00 am. Matuszak shattered the school record in the event by nearly 10 feet at the first outdoor meet of the season with a toss of 165-02.

Defiance will also look for strong performances from Mark Leugers and Alan Thompson as Leugers had a tremendous all-around meet at Cincinnati last weekend and Thompson has excelled in the triple jump all season.

Leugers finished second in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump one week ago and cracked DC’s Top-10 list in each event.

Click here to view a full schedule of Saturday’s events in PDF format.