San Francisco, Calif. – The SF State track and field team is gearing up for its largest home event his weekend, as the Gators will host the Seventh Annual Distance Carnival at Cox Stadium.  The two day event begins Friday, April 4 at 9 a.m. and will run through Saturday.  A total of 24 States will have schools represented this weekend at the largest Distance Carnival the Gators have ever put on.
 
"This meet originated in 2008 when we wanted a 10K for our distance runners," said interim head coach Tom Lyons. "The next year we moved it to the morning of the Stanford meet on the suggestion from a couple coaches looking for a meet where their athletes who didn't qualify for Stanford could compete on the same day."

The Distance Carnival, which started as a low key three-event meet with around 100 athletes back in 2008, has progressed significantly over the past five years into a well-known meet, this year's pool of 1,300 athletes account for over 150 teams from across the country.
 
"The meet has grown tremendously," said Lyons. "We'll have athletes from 24 states this year. We love having them come to our campus and enjoy our amazing track and field facility at Cox Stadium. The venue is among the best settings in the country."

SF State will have all 23 athletes competing in over 22 events.  Among those will be Janesha Anthony who will be competing in the 100m sprint, the long jump and the 4x100, as the Gators look to improve on their impressive showing from the Johnny Mathis Invitational two weeks ago.  Also competing will be Michelle Chung who won the discus the hammer throw two weeks ago.
 
Each event will run the top seeded heats first, with seedings found here, all taking place in Cox Stadium. The meet will take place rain or shine.  For event updates be sure to follow the Gators on twitter @sfstategators.

Schedule of Events