This weekend, the Big Red tracksters will get their first taste of indoor competition. Each member of the track team is looking to put up strong numbers in their first competitive run of the season.
This weekend, local competition in the form of Ithaca, Cortland, Binghamton, RPI and others will march into Ithaca for the Cornell Relays.
Looking to gain meet experience, the men’s and women’s track teams will be featuring all of their weapons as they look to lay the initial foundations of successful campaigns.
Each team, coming off successful seasons last year, will look to build on their past experiences. With the addition of many talented freshmen to both squads, and only a few graduating seniors, the tracksters should be a force to reckon with this weekend on their home track.
Returning to the freshman class, a lot of talk has been swirling around the track about the freshman class on the men’s track squad. This unit features added depth in the sprints, throws, and jumps and could lead the Red to many top finishes in this weekend’s meet.
“Practice has been going really well,” added thrower Jeremy Blanchet. “There are a lot of good freshman, and everyone is interested to see how their performances pan out.”
The freshmen, besides dealing with the nervousness surrounding their first meet, will also have to deal with some of the rule changes that come with the move from the high school venue to the college arena. The Red will be looking for strong performances from Zach Bauer in the weights, Tyler Kaune in the jumps, and Travis Offner in the pole vault, amongst others.
The women, on the other hand, will be led by captain Grace Nwoku in the middle distance, Danielle Brown in the jumps, and Skye Jay in the sprints. Like the men’s team, it will be looking for key contributions from its freshman class, including Johanna Garrity and Jen Crispell in the sprints, a plethora of freshmen in the distance squad, and Merili Mosley in the jumps. However, unlike the men’s team, the women will be left to fill a lot of void from graduating seniors.
“Everyone looks pretty good,” added Kim Chapman. “There are a lot of new people on the team, and this is their first NCAA meet. They have been working hard for a long time, and will be looking for their hard work to pay off.”
As Division II and III teams visit for the Cornell Relays, this will be a good first test to judge how the squads stand early in the season. Each team will be looking to work on form while setting as many personal records as possible.
With the slightly lower level of competition in this week’s meet, the Red will be looking to score many first place finishes while giving the new members of the team an opportunity to succeed in their first collegiate competition.
If the freshman are able to have productive meets, the depth of both the men’s and women’s squads should prove very worthwhile later in the season, when they begin their dual meet schedules and head towards the Heptagonals, the culmination of the season, in February.
Archived article by Peter Bernstein