Coming out of a bumpy Tune Up home meet last weekend, the Charger indoor track team is buckling down and focusing on this weekend’s GLIAC championships at Saginaw Valley State University.
“We were a little flat,” head coach Andrew Towne said of the team’s performance last week.
Between a number of distance athletes having the weekend off, midterms, and strong performances in Boston and at Grand Valley two weeks ago, the team was tired.
“We have to do the things we need to do to make sure we’re not tired anymore,” Towne said.
With the NCAA Division II track and field championships March 13 and 14, Towne and the coaching staff must take that into consideration as they approach the regional championships.
“We’re trying to strike a nice balance of making sure that you’re still prepared to go to NCAAs two weeks later and make sure that your still scoring points too,” he said.
While many students are already qualified for the NCAA championship, having either posted automatic marks or provisional marks that will likely prove sufficient for competition, Towne said that there are a few students on the “bubble” of qualification. Their performances this weekend may be able to push them onto the NCAAs. Those hopes, and the track and field program’s identity as a top level team, must be balanced with the strategic placement of athletes at the GLIAC championships scoring points for the team.
Junior Corinne Zehner is one athlete on the cusp of qualification, and, while she didn’t have a slow weekend, she’s looking to improving this weekend.
“I wanted to run a little faster in both the 60H and the open 400, but my time in the hurdles is pretty consistent and the competition at GLIACs will be a little faster so I am looking forward to that,” she said in an email. “I had a PR in the open 400 which was great but again, I hope to run faster this weekend at GLIACs because my time is not fast enough to get me to nationals just yet.”
Zehner ran a 57.25, posting a provisional mark, in the 400.
Junior Emily Oren already qualified for the NCAAs, but she still has high hopes for this weekend.
“Going in, I’m looking for a win in the Distance Medley Relay and the mile, and basically placing as high as I can in the 800 because I’m going to be pretty dead at that point,” she said. “I’m really excited for the team too because we have a lot of girls ranked really high in events and we’re starting to get more depth which is what we need to score a lot of points, so I think that we could come out doing really well in the conference.”
Towne told students after the Tune Up to get focused and energized for GLIACs. He said that he saw immediate improvement. Zehner said she’s focusing on staying healthy and well rested, despite midterm season. Senior Joshua Mirth, who runs the 3K and 5K and was on break this past weekend, is treating the regional championships like basically any other meet in his preparations.
“In terms of training we’re running the same mileage,” he said. “It’s pretty similar in terms of workouts that we’re doing this week. Maybe just take everything a little bit lighter, a little bit slower, because it is finally a championship meet. And mentally there’s a little more focus on remembering that we’ve got that at the end of the week.”
Mirth is confident that the team is ready.
“I think we’re looking really good.”
The GLIAC indoor track and field regional championship will be hosted by Saginaw Valley University in their new facility. Towne said the atmosphere at GLIACs is raucous, and that while older athletes may be able to feed on it, “for a freshman that can be pretty intimidating because they haven’t experienced that.”
But the plan is to score, and score big.
