02/27 at 01:16 AM

The Auburn men’s and women’s track and field teams will participate at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Lexington, Ky.

Competition begins today with the women’s pentathlon and first day of the men’s heptathlon. The rest of the athletes will begin competing Saturday, and the meet will conclude Sunday.

Both the men’s and the women’s teams expect to improve from last year’s eighth-place finishes at the SEC Indoor meet, despite a field that includes seven nationally-ranked men’s teams and five nationally-ranked women’s squads. Auburn’s women are currently ranked No. 18 nationally, while the men just slipped out of the top 25 this week after making an appearance in the rankings for the first time this season last week.

“We have two pretty good teams,” said head coach Ralph Spry. “This is the toughest indoor meet we’ll have all year, but I think we’re ready. Being consistent really pays off in this competition, and our team has been consistent all year long, so we just have to execute as we have all year. If we focus on taking care of the things that we can control, we’ll be fine.”

There are three events in the women’s competition in which Auburn has athletes entering the meet with the top performances in the league. Raevan Harris owns the SEC’s top high jump mark at 6-2.25, Joanna Atkins has the best time in the 400 meters of 53.22 and the 4x400-meter relay has the top time of 3:37.39. Nivea Smith (No. 2) and Cache Armbrister (No. 6) are also expected to contend in the 200 meters.

On the men’s side, the Tigers have four athletes ranked second in their respective events, including Ryan Fleck (high jump), Felix Kiboiywo (mile), Eric Werskey (shot put) and Marcus Rowland (60 meters), who is also seeded third in the 200 meters. Cross country All-Americans Elkanah Kibet and Girma Mecheso are also expected to contend in the distance races.

The Tigers’ best finishes at the SEC Indoor Championships in the 11 previous seasons that Spry has been the head coach have been a second-place finish by the women in 2006 and a third-place performance by the men in 2004. Although the Tigers have not won an SEC team title under Spry, Auburn athletes have accumulated 33 individual conference titles since 2000, and have had three high-point scorers at the meet in the last six years, including Elva Goulbourne (2003 female), Leevan Sands (2004 male) and Kerron Stewart (2006 female).

In addition to earning a high team finish, the Tigers will also be looking to add to their number of national qualifiers. Thus far this season, 11 individuals (seven men, four women), plus a relay team, have posted qualifying marks in 16 events, making them eligible for the NCAA Indoor Championships should they rank high enough on the national list of performers with qualifying marks.

Complete information on the meet at E.J. Nutter Field House, including ticket information and a schedule of events, can be found by visiting http://www.ukathletics.com.

Softball travels to California for tourney
The Auburn softball team will travel to Fullerton, Calif., for the DeMarini Invitational, beginning today.

The Tigers’ first game in the tournament will be a first time match-up against Nevada at 1:15 p.m. today. Auburn will also play No. 11 Cal at 5:45 p.m.

On Saturday, the Tigers will play Cal-Poly at 11 a.m. and then play Indiana at 1:15 p.m. Auburn will close the tournament with a 1:15 p.m. game against host Cal State-Fullerton on Sunday.

“We are looking forward to the weekend and the challenge of playing some very good teams,” Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. “Fullerton is a great place to play softball, the crowd really get into it and makes it tough on you.“

The Tigers enter the tournament at 14-2 overall and are coming off a 3-1 performance as the hosts of the War Eagle Classic. Auburn defeated Winthrop, Middle Tennessee and Austin Peay during the tournament, before losing the Sunday finale to Purdue.

Auburn is 1-0 against nationally ranked teams this season, having defeated then No. 18 North Carolina 6-5 at the FIU Tournament on Feb. 7.

“I am pleased with the way we have started the season,” Deese said. “I like the effort I have seen from the players. We need to continue giving that kind of effort and work to get better.“

Junior pitcher Anna Thompson was named the Southeastern Conference pitcher of the week for the week of Feb. 24, and set the school record for single-game strikeouts with 18 against Middle Tennessee on Feb. 20.

Thompson leads the SEC with 89 strikeouts and is second in the league with 21 strikeouts looking.

A pair of freshmen led the Tigers in hitting during the War Eagle Classic, with Lauren Guzman hitting .444 with three RBI and two stolen bases, and Elizabeth Eisterhold hitting .333 with two home runs.

Fans can follow the Tigers via live stats on the internet at http://www.auburntigers.com. Gametracker will be run for all of Auburn’s games during the weekend.

Women’s golf named team of the week
Following its performance at last week’s Central District Invitational, the No. 9 Auburn women’s golf team was named the Golfweek Magazine women’s team of the week.

Auburn led wire-to-wire in the 54-hole tournament, beating out six other top-25 teams and 10 teams ranked in the top 50 in the nation. The victory was the first for Auburn since winning the 2007 Liz Murphey Classic.

“It is a nice honor to be selected as the team of the week,” said Auburn head coach Kim Evans. “We had a good tournament last week, it was nice to get the spring started like that, but we have a lot of work left ahead of us.”

All five Tigers finished in the top 30 of the 75-player field, leading Auburn to an 18-over-par 882 and the three-stroke victory over SEC foe LSU. Junior Candace Schepperle led the Tiger charge as she finished second with a 2-under 214.

Auburn returns to action March 8-10 as it travels to the Central Florida Invitational in Heathrow, Fla.

Men’s tennis tops USF
TAMPA, Fla. — The No. 28 Auburn men’s tennis team took their fourth match in-a-row as they traveled to take down No. 37 South Florida, 4-1.

Starting the Tigers on the right track, senior Milan Krnjetin and sophomore Michel Monteiro teamed up to take the first doubles victory of the day, 9-8 (7-4), over Mahmoud Hamed and Mark Oljaca.

Following the first win, Auburn’s top duo of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz clinched the doubles point as they took care of the No. 23 ranked pair of Lucas Jovita and Thomas Estrada, 8-4. Tsyrenov and Puetz, currently the No. 15 doubles team in the nation, improve to 5-0 this season in doubles play.

“We were resilient today in doubles,” head coach Eric Shore said. “When we got down, we picked ourselves up, fought back and earned a tough doubles point.”

On court two, Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev did not finish their match against Wael Kilani and Romain Deridder as the doubles point had already been awarded to the Tigers.

Taking the lead into singles play, Auburn quickly built a lead as Alex Petropoulos earned a strong 6-2, 6-2 win over Thomas Estrada.

“Alex really stepped up for us today,” said Shore. “He did what we think he is capable of doing for us and he got a good early win down on court six.”

Following the immediate win, Puetz took another singles win as he claimed a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Wael Kilani. Puetz, currently No. 56 in the ITA rankings, now holds to a perfect 6-0 record in singles competition.

With Auburn holding a 3-0 margin, the Bulls fought back as Mahmoud Hamed defeated Marsoun, 6-2, 6-4. However, freshman Stamchev stepped up to clinch the match for the Tigers as he rallied to beat Jamal Adderley, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

“Stamchev has been struggling recently, but he showed us what he is capable of achieving,” Shore mentioned. “Today he came in here and gave us the win.”

After the clinching point had been awarded to Auburn, the singles match-ups involving Tsyrenov and Krnjetin were suspended.

With the first true road match settled, the Tigers improve to a 5-1 record.

“It was a good win for us today,” Shore said. “We played pretty solid. It’s good to get a true road win, but we still have to prepare for our Sunday match.”

The match was the first actual road dual match for the Tigers as their competition at the ITA National Indoor Qualifier was played at a neutral site.

Auburn’s next match will come Sunday as the Tigers host No. 22 North Carolina. Action is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.