The track and field teams will compete in the New York Road Runners College Invitational tomorrow night at The Armory II in New York City. The track and field events will start at 6 p.m. in this scored meet.
The men’s team will be competing with 10 other teams, which will include two Ivy League rivals –– Princeton and Columbia. These schools are also producing two of the seven total teams the Red will face on the women’s side.
The first part of this meet took place on Jan. 16 and seven men’s teams competed. Temple scored 131 points to win first place overall. From the 10 women’s teams that competed, Connecticut took first place with 183.5 points. Cornell did not participate in the first part of the meet and each meet is scored separately.
Although the Red was scheduled to run at the Harvard Quadrangular this weekend, the teams changed their plans and will run at the Armory instead. This Saturday will be the first time the Red will be competing at the Armory.
“We’ve never run there before,” senior captain Jessica Weyman said. “It should be a good opportunity for us. Everyone will be bringing their A game.”
Members of the Red trained and prepared continuously over break. This effort translated into confidence after recent, impressive performances at the Upstate Challenge and the Penn State Open. Many athletes won individual events or placed in the top-10.
“At first, we weren’t sure what to expect with everyone training on their own during the break,” Weyman said. “But we had very good meets at Penn State and here at home. Many people are setting [personal records] and qualifying. We’re really excited.”
In particular, Weyman performed very well after placing first in the 400m dash and second in the 200m dash last week. At Penn State, she set a new meet record in the 500m dash with a 1:13:31.
Although the athletes are placing high and are scoring, the team is stressing the improvement of individual efforts to create success for the whole group. Instead of solely looking to win, the Red looks to build upon previous performances. Every athlete has a personal record to try and better this weekend.
“Everyone will look to improve on what they’ve already done,” Weyman said. “Everyone has their own goals for this meet.”
Original Author: Wankyu Lee