ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's track & field team will head north to Kirksville, Mo., this weekend for the Great Lakes Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, with the men's team seeking to win a fourth straight championship and the women's team seeking to rise from its fifth place finish of a year ago.

The meet will begin Thursday at Stokes Stadium at Truman State University with competition in the multi-events and finals in the hammer throw and 10,000-meter runs.   On Friday, the meet will ramp up with the conclusion of the multi-events, finals in six field events and the 3,000-meter steeplechase and preliminaries in several track events before the meet closes Saturday afternoon.

S&T's men are seeking to become just the third team in GLVC history to capture four consecutive championships after winning last year's meet by 51 points over Lewis.  The Flyers are expected to be one of the top contenders to dethrone the Miners after winning the GLVC's indoor title in February.

If the Miners win the championship, they will join Southern Illinois Edwardsville (five straight from 2004-08) and Indianapolis (four straight from 2010-13) as teams to win four titles in succession.

The Miners come into the meet with several competitors that have reached NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks and rank among the top 10 in the GLVC in their respective events.  Five of them are the best in the conference, paced by Jacob Luebbert's (Warsaw, MO/Warsaw) mark in the hammer throw of 215-11, which also ranks as the fourth-best in NCAA Division II.

Rhet Liley (Jackson, MO/Jackson) is first in the javelin throw after posting a mark of 201-4 to win the competition at the Drake Relays on Saturday and Otto Knittel (Spring Hill, KS/Spring Hill) has the top mark in the decathlon of 6,612 points.

Owen Fraser (Kirksville, MO/Kirksville) and Tyler Marchert (Frankfort, IL/Lincoln-Way East) are ranked one-two in the GLVC in the shot put; Fraser's mark of 54-11¼ has also reached NCAA provisional status. Fraser is also second in the conference with a mark of 181-3 in the discus that he reached last weekend at the Drake Relays and is now 10^th nationally.  The Miners also have the fastest 4x100-meter relay time of the season at 41.36 seconds.

Paulvin Horton's (Raleigh, NC/Garner) mark of 49-1¾ in the triple jump has surpassed the provisional standard and is the second-best in the GLVC, while Kyle Burke (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield) is second in the 110-meter hurdles as his time of 14.39 seconds is also a provisional mark.  Sam Wright (Hillsboro, MO/Hillsboro) is ranked second in the 400-meter hurdles at 54.52 seconds and Samuel Schmidt ranks third in the 100-meter dash with a top time of 10.64 seconds.

On the women's side, the Miners have several among the top five in their respective events heading into the meet, led a trio of individuals who rank second in the GLVC in their events.  Olivia Henkel (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) is in that spot in the high jump with a top clearance of 5-5¼, while Maya Wright (Hillsboro, MO/Hillsboro) is second in the 400-meter hurdles with her time of 1:05.51 and Hailey Smith (Wentzville, MO/Timberland) is there in the triple jump – where she was the GLVC's indoor champion – with her top leap of 37-10½.

Besides being second in the 400-hurdles, Wright also owns the third-best score in the heptathlon of 4,177 points this season and is ranked fifth in the 100-meter hurdles at 15 seconds flat.

Elizabeth Rothweiler (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) is fourth in the pole vault with clearance of 10-8 as is Grace Giesler (Owasso, OK/Owasso) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:42.23 and Haylee Woodall (Steelville, MO/Steelville) in the javelin throw with a mark of 137-feet, while Hailey Smith (Wentzville, MO/Timberland) ranks fifth in the 400-hurdles at 1:06.33 and in the long jump with a mark 17-7½ as does Lauryn Fenoglio (Granite City, IL/Granite City) in the heptathlon with her top score of 3,740 points.