McNeese State will host eight colleges and universities on Friday and more than 500 high school athletes on Saturday at its 2012 Cowboy Indoor Track and Field Invitational I meet.

The college/university division meet (men and women divisions) will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday and the high schools will run all day on Saturday, all action taking place at the Ralph O. Ward Rec-Complex on campus.

Fans are invited to attend and an admission fee will be charged.

Joining the Cowboys and the Cowgirls on Friday will be teams from Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern (BR), TAM-Corpus Christi, UL Lafayette, UL Monroe and Hinds Junior College.

“We expect to have some outstanding events on Friday,” said McNeese head coach Brendon Gilroy. “We have many conference champions coming in to compete that day.

“On Saturday we will have many outstanding high school athletes competing and they are coming from states as far away as Florida.”

Among those participating on Friday will be the Cowboys own Jarrett LeBlanc and Joshua Sawe. LeBlanc won two events during the Southland Conference championship outdoor meet last year while Sawe was a title holder indoors.

Both will run the 800 meter race on Friday and LeBlanc will also take part in the one mile run.

The one mile event could be one of the top races of the day. Besides LeBlanc, also entered will be teammates Johnathon Koenck and Alex Bruce-Littlewood and TAM-Corpus Christi's Patrick Kimeli, a SLC champion.

McNeese's David Rooney holds the rec-complex record of 4:07.90 but Rooney is recovering from an injury and will not compete indoors for the Cowboys this season.

Other top entries for the Cowboys in the meet are expected to be high jumper Parminder Singh, pole vaulter Lance Ardoin and Thomas Canchola and Jared Crafton in the shot put and weight throw.

For the Cowgirls, top competitors are expected to be Mariah Georgetown, Fionnuala Ross, Amy Talbot and Ashlee Smith.

Georgetown is entered in the 200 meters, the 55 meter hurdles for which she holds the school record and the long jump while Talbot will participate in the 800 meters and the mile run, Ross will run the 3000 meters and Smith will take part in the shot put and the weight throw.

High school teams from just about every state in the south will be in attendance at Saturday's meet.