Full Schedule

DAYTON, Ohio – The University of Dayton women's track and field team released their indoor and outdoor schedules for the upcoming 2015 season.

"Our schedule will have us at some of the top facilities in the nation that will allow us to see some of the nation's best athletes every week," said Head Coach Jason Francis.

The indoor season begins on Jan. 9 at the Buckeye Classic in Columbus. At this event last season, the Flyers got off to a strong start with first-place finishes by Chelsea VanHook (600m), Lizzie Gleason (800m), and Hanna Krizmanic (pole vault).

Dayton then travels to the Kentucky Invite (Jan. 16 & 17), the Youngstown State Invitational (Jan. 23), and the Thundering Herd Open (Jan. 30 & 31) in consecutive weekends. The Flyers competed at Kentucky last year, but the YSU and Marshall events are new to the UD squad this season.

The Akron Invitational (Feb. 6 & 7) opens up the month of February, followed by the Hoosier Hills meet in Bloomington (Feb. 13). Senior Miranda Nelson had a first-place finish in the shot put last season at Akron and will look to defend that title this year.

These events will lead up to Dayton's trip to the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships in Kingston, R.I. on Feb. 21 & 22. The Flyers were conference runners-up last year with eight student athletes reaching the podium, and are striving for the top spot in 2015. Seniors Aly Weeman, Miranda Nelson, Katy Garcia, and Ashley DeMange all return from last year's medalists.

The NCAA Indoor National meet will take place on March 13 and 14 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Coach Francis talked about the growth he hopes to see from the Flyers each event.

"Like most years we want to see improvements week to week and to see consistency in performances from the women every week," stated Francis." The consistent performances each week will lead us to success and put us in a great position as we move into A-10's and into the NCAA National meets. Our team goal is to have better and more consistent performances in our 5-6 meets leading up to A10's and for our season best performances to come at both the A-10 meets and National meets."

There are just two weeks off from the indoor nationals to the start of the outdoor season as Dayton starts the second half of the campaign on March 27 & 28 at the Oliver Nikoloff meet in Cincinnati.

The Flyers will then head to another new meet for the 2015 season in the Tiger Track Classic (April 3 & 4) hosted by Auburn University in Alabama where some of the top schools in the talent-laden SEC will compete.

Dayton returns to familiar confines for the next three weekends as the Flyers compete in the All-Ohio Championships (April 10 & 11), the Jesse Owens Classic (April 17 & 18), the Mt. Sac Relays (April 17 & 18), and the RedHawk Invitational (April 25). Miami of Ohio will host the All-Ohio's this year in Oxford while Ohio State hosts the Jesse Owens Classic. The Flyers performed well at these competitions last season with multiple school records falling and numerous Top 5 finishes. VanHook and senior Maya Pedersen (twice) broke the Dayton marks last year and return for the 2015 campaign. The Mt. Sac Relays take place in Walnut, California and will showcase the distance runners for the Flyers.

The 2015 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships will be held on May 2 & 3 in Fairfax, Va. Dayton finished fifth in this competition last year and led the standings after the first day. The Flyers once again had multiple student athletes on the podium including two conference champions (Nicole Cargill, 3000m steeplechase; Aly Weeman, hammer throw). Weeman will try to defend her title while Garcia will look to improve on her pair of bronze medals.  

The Louisville Twilight on May 15 will be the last chance for Flyers to qualify for the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet on May 28, 29, & 30 in Jacksonville, Fla. Dayton sent three student athletes (Cargill, steeplechase; DeMange, pole vault; & Weeman, hammer throw) to this event last year. The final round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon (June 10-13).

Coach Francis talked about the team's current state during the offseason.

"The team is currently finishing up our conditioning workouts and the women all look really fit and the upper classman are all ahead of where they have been in previous years," Francis said. "The coaching staff is really excited with what we have seen from the women so far this fall and expect our training to continue to improve as we progress through the rest of this semester. Over the coming weeks we will be transitioning into our full workouts which will allow us to work with the athletes longer and allow more specialized and specific work especially in the hurdles, jumps and throwing events."

For more information regarding the 2015 Dayton women's track and field season, check out DaytonFlyers.com.