Tiger track coach Roger Erricker is splitting his forces this Saturday, sending half of the Towson women's track squad to Franklin Field for the Penn Invite while the others take a five minute bus ride to compete in the Goucher College Track & Field Classic.

"We're sending all of our throwers to Goucher," Erricker said. "The throws start at 8:00 Saturday morning at Penn which means we would have to leave Towson at 5:00 a.m. just to get there on time."

Among the throwers Erricker is looking for seniors Shianna Smith and Shannel Shivers to hit qualifying marks in both the hammer and discus. Smith set a new school record in the hammer at last week's Towson Invitational with a throw of 166'11" but needs to surpass 167'4" to qualify for the ECAC Meet.

One objective for the weekend is to see if Towson's 4X800 relay team of seniors Liya Kasimova and Kaylin Gilmartin-Donohue plus sophomore Emma Tobin and freshman Kara Bucaro can qualify for the ECAC's at the Penn Invite.

"This group came within eight seconds of qualifying indoors," said Erricker. "Outdoors you're a little faster because there aren't as many turns

Graduate student Katie Ogden will be running the 5,000 at Goucher, hoping to add that event to her ECAC qualifying list. She has already qualified for the 10,000.

"We're sending Katie to Goucher because they're not running the 5,000 at Penn," Erricker said.

Action at Penn gets underway at 8:00 a.m. and at Goucher at 10:00 a.m.