March 25, 2009

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama men's track and field team will open its 2009 outdoor season by hosting the annual Alabama Relays at the Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama. The meet will begin on Thursday, March 26 and go through Sunday, March 29. Abraham Kutingala will also be competing at the Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif. on Friday.

The first event for the Alabama Relays will be the heptathlon at 9:30 a.m. with the decathlon to follow at 11:00 a.m. The first day will feature the 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m on the women's side. For the men, the 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m will kick-off the annual event.

"I do feel that we are in position to get NCAA Regional marks, weather-permitting, this weekend. The weather will certainly play a major part in how we perform. We would love to have ideal conditions but right now the forecast is not calling for that. It will certainly be a waste if we don't compete the way we are capable of competing because I think we have some guys that are certainly capable of making NCAA Regional marks and getting it out of the way the first meet of the season."

A total of 33 squads will be in town this weekend for the Alabama Relays, including three teams from the Southeastern Conference (Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State).

Saturday and Sunday's schedule include the bulk of the weekend events with events beginning at 8:30 and 8:00 a.m., respectively. Saturday will begin with the women's 10,000m run. The men's hammer throw will start Sunday's events and running events will begin at 12:30 p.m. with the shuttle hurdle relay.

"It's going to be tough, however I still expect the team to go out and compete no matter what the weather is. We talked about that yesterday; it doesn't just rain on Alabama it rains on every team out there and if nothing else, if we can't get qualifying marks, we want to compete well to be ready for next week at the Florida Relays."

Alabama concluded its indoor season with an All-American performance from Tyson David in the 5,000m run. David was fifth in the race running a time of 13:49.58. Emmanuel Bor just missed All-American honors in the 3,000m finishing in tenth, 2.08 seconds out of eighth.

David posted the second fastest 5,000m time and Bor ran the fifth fastest 5,000m time in Alabama school history earlier in the year at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash.

"Historically, the Stanford meet has produced probably, of all the people that qualify for the NCAA Championship, probably produces 80-85% of the field that compete at Nationals. We try to do what's best for the student athletes and that's giving them the opportunity to compete with the best in country. The thing you want to do is get your qualifying out the way early so you can work on other things. Our hopes are that he will come back with a NCAA mark that will allow him to compete at the championships."

At Stanford, Kutingala will compete in the 10,000m race slated to begin at 10:48 p.m. (PST). He boasts a personal best of 29:06.17, well under the NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 29:30.00.