Baseball | 4/8/2015 3:00:00 PM
ABILENE – One of the busiest and most historic weekends in recent ACU athletics history is coming up in the next couple of days, and there are plenty of chances for Wildcat fans, lettermen and alumni to participate.
Friday at approximately 11:30 a.m., former ACU track and field coaches and lettermen and women's soccer players will be on the track and on the field as ACU dedicates the new Elmer Gray Stadium. The event is open to the public and will mark the opening of ACU's first new athletics playing facility since Wells Field was completed in time for the 1997 softball season.
Friday at 6:30 p.m., five track and field greats will be inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame during ceremonies at the Teague Special Events Center. Going into the hall of fame will be Brian Amos, Ann (Foster) Faulknor, Waymond Griggs, Ian Morris and Dennis Richardson. Tickets to the event are $25 apiece and can still be purchased by calling 325-674-2353.
Also on Friday, the ACU softball team will be hosting Stephen F. Austin in a 4 p.m. doubleheader in Southland Conference action at Wells Field. The baseball team (at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and the women's tennis team (at Dallas Baptist and at SMU) will be on the road Friday.
On Saturday, the Wildcats' three-game softball series against Stephen F. Austin wraps up with a single game set to start at 12 p.m. at Wells Field.
Shortly after the softball game starts, the second Wes Kittley Invitational – the first event to take place at the new Elmer Gray Stadium – will get started. Field events will start at 12:30 p.m. with the men's and women's hammer throw inside the new field events area north of Ambler Ave., and the men's and women's discus throw on the infield surface of the original Elmer Gray Stadium.
The men's and women's javelin and the men's and women's shot put will go off at 5 p.m. at the old Elmer Gray Stadium, and those could be historic events because they could well be the final events competed for at one of the legendary venues of United States track and field.
Running events will be on a rolling schedule beginning with the 3000 steeplechase going off at 4:30 p.m., the first event at the new stadium. Following the 5 p.m. National Anthem to open the meet, athletes from ACU, Texas Tech, TCU, South Plains College and Western Texas College will roll through the rest of the running events – 4x100 relay, 1500 meters, 100 hurdles, 110 hurdles, 400 meters, 100 meters, 800 meters, 400 hurdles, 200 meters, 5000 meters and the 4x400 relay.
Tickets to the track and field meet will be $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. The event is named for former ACU head track and field coach and current Texas Tech mentor Wes Kittley, who led the Wildcats to 29 NCAA Division II national championships (men's and women's combined) during his tenure (1985-99). He was the Big 12 Men's Coach of the Year in 2014 after leading the Red Raiders to the Big 12 outdoor team championship.
Also on Saturday, the women's tennis team will host Sam Houston State at 11:44 a.m. in a Southland Conference match at the Eager Tennis Center, and the baseball team will be in Corpus Christi for a 1 p.m. game against the Islanders.
The weekend will wrap up Sunday with men's and women's tennis matches at 11:44 a.m. against Lamar at the Eager Tennis Center, followed by a 5 p.m. men's match against Texas-Permian Basin. The baseball team will wrap up its weekend in Corpus Christi with a 1 p.m. game.
