MILWAUKEE, Wis. (March 31, 2010) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's and women's track and field team return to action this weekend, traveling across town Friday to take on Marquette in a dual meet at Valley Fields.

The meet gets underway at 11 a.m. at Bus Shimek Memorial Track.

A trio of combined event athletes will be heading to Charleston, Ill., for the Big Blue Classic Friday and Saturday. Sophomore Laura Hamel and freshman Moriah Myles will represent the women in the heptathlon, while freshman Ryan Rayeske will compete in the men's decathlon.

UWM and MU are meeting for the third time since instituting an annual dual meet last season. The Golden Eagles were victorious outdoors in 2009, 203-172, but the Panthers scored a combined win indoors this season, 148-127. Individually, Marquette's men have won both meets, while the women's teams have split.

The two programs have several ties to each other, most notably in Marquette head coach Bert Rogers and assistant coach Nick Davis. Both Rogers and Davis competed at UWM under Panther gead coach Pete Corfeld. Rogers won a league title and earned all-league second-team honors five times in his Panther career. Meanwhile, Davis won 10 league titles at Milwaukee and won league titles in the outdoor high jump and javelin all four years.

Also, junior Tanaiya Fisher's younger brother, Randey, runs for Marquette. The pair's older sister Tenia was a standout at UWM and younger brother Toney is a freshman with the Panthers.

Milwaukee is coming off a strong weekend, where two school records fell and two Panthers were named Horizon League Field Athletes of the Week. Senior Beth Zimmerman competed with the bulk of the squad at the Eastern Illinois Invitational. She broke her own school record in the triple jump and won the long jump to earn athlete of the week honors. Her triple jump of 39-10 1/2 was a four-inch improvement, while her long jump (19-0) was also a personal best and is seventh in school history.

Her Field AOW counterpart was senior Quinn Mongoven, who won the long jump and took second in the high jump at the EIU Invite to win the award for the third time in 2010. Other standouts from the meet were a dual winner on the men's side, senior Tyler Bucholz (200m, 400m), and other women's winners--senior Jenni Parish (javelin), junior Angie Kaufmann (400m) and freshman Flo Mafany (400mH).

At the Raleigh Relays, UWM had five runners competing, led by dominant performances in the men's and women's 5000m. Freshman John Simons broke the school record in the event on the men's side and freshman Elise Sigg shook off a tumble at 150m to post the fifth-best time in school history for the women. Simons ran 14:33.85 to eclipse the previous standard of 14:37.13 and took second in the event by less than a second. On the other side of things, Sigg ran 17:20.10 for fifth in the event.

Some Panthers will have a short week, as Milwaukee will send some athletes to the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., beginning Wednesday, April 7. The meet runs through Saturday.