Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Track and Field	SIUE Men's Track and Field SIUE Women's Track and Field SIUE Athletics

January 29, 2008 Cougars Ready for Indiana Relays         EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - This weekend the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville indoor track team will travel to Bloomington, Ind., for the Indiana Relays.         "Our athletes will get the opportunity to compete against quality competition in all of the events. With such a deep field it should be interesting," said SIUE coach David Astrauskas.         Astraukas singled out the men's and women's 400 meter runners, the mile relay teams, and the throwers as events to watch.         Chris Wright (Richton Park) and Chris Littleton (Champaign) are leading the men's 400 meter team with their Great Lakes Valley Conference-leading times of 49.83 and 50.11.         For the women's 400 meters, Juliet Alrich (Carpentersville) and Deserea Brown (Flossmoor) lead the Cougars. Alrich and Brown also are leading the GLVC with their times of 57.14 and 57.35.         Both 1,600-meter relay teams have put considerable time gaps between themselves and their GLVC counterparts. With a time of 3:18.24, the men are nearly eight seconds faster than the second fastest team.         On the women's side, the gap is even wider. Coming in at 3:50.73, the Cougars women are 16 seconds faster than the second fastest team in the GLVC.         "I am expecting some fast times this weekend from our runners. Our athletes really take advantage of the banked track," said Astrauskas.         Scott Block (Hanover Park) will use this meet as an opportunity to improve on his already impressive throwing marks.         In the shot put, Block has already automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with his toss of 17.46 meters.         This weekend, Block will possibly inch his way closer to the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 19.00 meters in the 35-pound weight toss. He has already provisionally qualified with a toss of 18.91 meters.         "Scott will probably get a chance to make nine throws this weekend. Any time you get to make that many throws your chances of improving and throwing farther increase," said Astrauskas.                 -siue cougars-