The Auburn track and field team will begin its 2026 indoor season at the UAB Blazer Invitational on Friday. The event will take place at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, with competition starting at 1 p.m. CT and concluding at 6 p.m.
Auburn head coach Leroy Burrell commented on the start of the season: “We’re really excited to get things started,” Burrell said. “I told the team that we can’t win a championship in our first meet, but we can certainly give ourselves a bit of a head start. We’re hoping to see them get off to a good start in pretty much a local meet for us. We’ll use Friday to shake off the rust and really start to get after it in about a month when our heavy hitters are competing.”
The Tigers plan to compete with 15 men and 19 women, featuring mainly newcomers along with select returning athletes. Burrell added, “We’re going to stick to the formula that has made us successful over the last couple of years. We’ll be heavy in sprints and there will be a couple of new names and faces on both the men’s and women’s sides, and we have some holdovers in the throws and the young jump group that we had last year.”
Notable returners include All-Americans Megan Hague and Zuriel Reed, as well as SEC scorer Camryn Massey. On the men’s side, All-Americans Seth Allen, Azeem Fahmi, and Matthew Rueff are set to compete. Fahmi is recognized as a two-time national champion for his role in Auburn’s 4x100m relay team that secured consecutive outdoor national titles over the past two seasons.
Following Friday’s meet, Auburn will compete again at the CrossPlex on January 17 for the Samford Open before participating in higher-profile meets later in January and early February in Clemson, South Carolina.
Admission prices for Friday’s event are $10 for adults and $7 for children.
