Jan. 17, 2008

The University of Texas-Pan American men's and women's track and field programs will open the 2008 indoor season at the Leonard Memorial hosted by the University of Houston at the Yeoman Field house on Friday (Jan. 18).

The trip to Houston marks the first official track and field meet for first-year head coach Dennis Darling and a return back to his alma mater, where he captured 12 Conference USA individual titles.

"I'm excited to see what the teams going to do and we should expect some good performances," said head men's and women's track and field coach Dennis Darling. "After winter break, the team didn't come back in the best of shape, hopefully with this meet we'll see where we are at."

After spending part of the month of December on holiday break, both the men's and women's track and field teams will look to start the season with several top performances.

"It is very difficult coming into this first meet straight out of winter break. Every coach is skeptical with their athletes not coming back into shape. It's sometimes very frustrating because you work so hard in the fall and you have to come back and start over again," added Darling.

Host University of Houston is one of several Texas teams that will compete in Friday's meet. UH is coming off five top finishes last weekend at the Houston Indoor Opener.

Returning to the Bronc lineup looking to make a strong impact this season is UTPA All-American Will Littleton (Cuero, TX/Angelo State Univ.) and junior Luis Nava (La Joya, TX/ La Joya H.S.).

On the women's side, Amanda Ferris (San Antonio, TX/Dillard-McCollum H.S.) and valley native Carolina Yzaguirre (Brownsville, TX/ Hanna H. S.) return as two of last seasons top performers.

"This meet is just to see where we stand at this point. As a former athlete I want to go out there, compete and look good. I want us to go out and represent well and be competitive," Darling said.

The meet will be an all-day event, taking place on Friday (Jan. 18) at the indoor track located in the Athletics/Alumni Center on the campus of the University of Houston.

UTPA Sports Information