Next weekend will be an exciting time for the men’s and women’s track and field teams as they host the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship on May 9-11 at the Abe Stuber Track Complex.

The last time Southeast hosted was in 2012.

“This only comes around once every seven or eight years that you get to host your conference meet, so it’s special for everyone here on the team,” Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker said. “Competing at your conference meet on your home track is an awesome deal.”

Eager to compete in their first ever home conference meet are senior Kaitlyn Shea and junior Logan Blomquist, who have both had memorable seasons thus far.

“It’s been good, it’s been really fun,” Shea said. “I didn’t get to compete last season so I feel like I’ve just been so grateful to be out there with my teammates again.”

Shea is set to compete in the women’s 3,000 meter steeplechase and 5k events and looks to lower her personal-best times.

“PR’s are always fun, just work as hard as I can no matter how I am feeling,” Shea said. “Do it for my teammates and finish strong.”

Blomquist has earned the OVC’s Male Field Athlete of the Week for four consecutive weeks.

“I would say it’s unusual for a track and field athlete to get recognized that much,” Blomquist said. “It’s really cool, I’m humbled by the experience and being apart of this team for three years now, I’m really taking the leadership role and helping everyone out.”

Having four straight weeks of this honor speaks volumes to the overall season Blomquist has put together in his junior campaign.

“Season’s been really well the last four weeks, I honestly didn’t expect to get OVC Male field Athlete of the Week which was awesome,” Blomquist said. “I think just off of coach’s weight lifting program things are only going to get better from here because we are tapering off, so we should be exceeding even more.”

With the meet approaching, Blomquist said the excitement is kicking in.

“I think I’m more excited that it’s the home meet,” Blomquist said. “I’m really pumped and excited, we’re going to have a lot of good performances.”

Competing in the men’s shot put, discus, hammer and javelin — Blomquist said he’d like to see personal records across the board.

“Home field advantage, conference meet, junior year - It’d be great,” Blomquist said.

Last year, the men placed third and the women placed fifth in the outdoor championship hosted at Tennessee Tech. The defending champions for the men is Eastern Kentucky, while Tennessee Tech captured the title on the women’s side.

With returning talent on both sides, including junior Jonno Engelking the 2018 Co-Field Athlete of the Year and senior Tanner Teigen who captured gold in pole vault during last years outdoor championship, Crumpecker is confident heading into the meet.

“I think we're a lot better than what we have shown so far and we got a lot of good performances coming, we just need the right day to do it,” Crumpecker said. “Hopefully next week here with the conference meet, we get some good weather and can pop off some big performances. We show up and take care of business, we’ll be right there in the hunt.”

Leading up to Thursday, which kicks off day one of the meet, Crumpecker explained the message he’ll be sending to the team.

“We just preach out here, just get better every week. Come to practice every week and work hard to get better,” Crumpecker said. “That’s the name of the game in track and field, is just good, consistent work and you strive to get better on a weekly basis.”