This weekend, Marquette’s track and field team will be running at the 26th annual Meyo Invitational hosted by Notre Dame. After a record-setting weekend at Iowa State, this weekend is aimed at getting a few more Big East qualifiers for those runners still without them.
Due to entry limitations and higher caliber talent running at Meyo, coach Bert Rogers has adjusted his traveling roster accordingly as he also looks ahead to next weekend.
“The idea is to use Grand Valley State’s Big Meet as a little bit of a kickstart going into Big Easts,” Rogers said. “There will be a few of the other distance folks who will race this weekend and then have the following weekend off.”
Seniors Patrick Maag and Connor Callahan and junior Jack Senefeld will rest at home after getting their conference championship qualifiers out of the way at the Bill Bergan Invitational.
Redshirt junior Spencer Agnew will tackle the 5,000-meter run, which will be the longest race for him since cross-country season and his first 5,000 on the track since the 2011 outdoor season. Agnew did not run last weekend due to illness, but his training has been going well recently, and he could be ready to punch his ticket to Geneva, Ohio, with a Big East qualifier.
Freshmen Cody Haberkorn and Andres Tineo-Paz will run their first ever 5,000-meter race on the track. Hitting anywhere close to 15 minutes for the race would be a solid start.
On the women’s distance runners side, Molly Hanson already owns one freshman record in the women’s 800-meter run. On Friday, her sights are set on the freshman 1,000-meter record currently held by junior Sarah Ball.
Assistant coach Michael Nelson said he also considers Hanson a contender to take down the school record in the 1,000-meter race, which currently belongs to his wife, Cassie.
Most of Marquette’s runners in the 1,000-meter race on the men’s and women’s sides will be out for Big East qualifying marks.
Jumpers will be joining their running teammates in South Bend this weekend, as junior Carlye Schuh will try to top her own record in the long jump. Rogers and assistant coach Nick Davis have been in talks to see what Schuh can do in the triple jump.
Schuh shared some of her adjustments since she last triple jumped in December.
“(There is) a lot more consistency and getting my technique down,” Schuh said. “Getting consistent on the board is really my big thing right now.”
Junior Michael Saindon will return to action in the vertical jumps after taking the Bill Bergan Invitational off. Freshman Tate Pashibin started off the season jumping 1.63 meters at Notre Dame’s Blue and Gold Invitational. She has improved that mark since then and enters the competition with a 1.73-meter personal best.
Marquette’s throwers will not travel with the rest of the team, staying closer to home at the Parkside Classic. Redshirt sophomore Bret Hardin said not having so many competitors around will help the throwers focus on their own tasks.
“We’re trying to keep that momentum up,” Hardin said. “It’s going to be a smaller meet, so we really need to keep the intensity up and try to make the most of it.”
Action from Notre Dame starts on Friday at 4 p.m. with the women’s pole vault. The broadcast on Saturday will begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s 3,000-meter run.
