After the men took fourth and the women took sixth in the Big East Track & Field Indoor Championships, the teams now shift their focus to the outdoor season.
“I’m really excited to continue the great work that we’ve been doing indoors. For the most part, I thought we finished on a pretty high note across most of the event areas indoors and I want to keep that going,” head coach Bert Rogers said. “We’re getting ready to roll on April 1, and I think we’re preparing well for it.”
Rogers said the transition between the seasons is important because outdoor meets are unlike indoor ones.
“There’s different events and there’s a different size track, so a lot of the events are competed slightly differently,” Rogers said. “Also in outdoors we add a couple of events like the javelin and the hammer throw and then subtract others like the weight throw.”
This year, Rogers said he is optimistic about what his squad is able to accomplish heading outdoors.
“I’m happy with how we competed and how we did and all things considered, I’m happy with how we placed in the conference meet,” Rogers said. “Going into the outdoor season, with the events that are added in the outdoor season are ones we’re fairly strong in, so hopefully we can move up in the team standings and score a couple more points.”
In the 2022 season outdoors, Rogers brought his team to a sixth and fifth place finish.
Distance
With a majority of the distance runners being seniors, senior sprinter Kate Jochims said that the coaching staff has started to implement younger athletes into the distance medley relays. The group has added more mid-distance runners in its long races such as junior sprinter Morgan Parzych.
Jochims said that the upperclassmen have bought into their roles heading into the outdoor season.
“I think that me and all of my co-seniors are really dominant in our fields and are becoming great leaders to train in the underclassmen,” Jochims said. “The underclassmen are really starting to get on their feet and come through injuries, so everyone is looking really good heading into the outdoor season.”
Jochims said the distance group is on the outskirts of medaling in a lot of different races and the team’s goal is to perform better than they did last year in the outdoor-specific distance events like the 10k.
Rogers said the distance group performed great last outdoor season, and he’s excited about its future.
“I think the distance event area is another huge area that we can look forward to and I’m excited to see on how it comes together.”
Sprints
Wright said that the sprinting group did well the previous season and that their performance shows how they can transition into the outdoor season.
“We’re doing a lot at the right time, so everything seems to be coming together,” Wright said. “Slowly but surely we’re getting there, and with this performance, it should be a great jump for the group into the outdoor season.”
Last year, Samuel Johnson and Daniel Bendel contributed to the sprinting group’s third-place record for the school and bronze medal for the championships. Even with the duo gone, Rogers said he thinks that the sprinters have done good work and can continue to do that heading forward.
“Julian, Zach and Daylee in those 400s have all run really great and have been very competitive during the indoor season,” Rogers said. “They can definitely continue that into the outdoor season.”
Wright said that the focus will now shift to connecting all parts of a sprinting race together.
“During the outdoor season, we’re going to focus a lot more on our form through the curves and the middle of our races,” Wright said. “We’ve been working this year on different parts of the race and now it’s time to put everything together.”
Multi-event
Last outdoor season, the multi-event group scored points at numerous meets with the help of graduate Megan Wallace along with Mila Puseljic and Simon Werven.
Despite the loss of Wallace, due to graduation, Werven said that he has a lot of confidence in their transition and what the multi-event group can do this outdoor season.
“It’s really great because the team and especially the younger guys are ready to go,” Werven said. “We’re looking to put up some big numbers in this outdoor season.”
With the season quickly approaching, Werven said that the group wants to build off the success of their indoor season.
“We’re going to focus on a lot of technical work going into the outdoor season as well as finding time to break each event down,” Werven said. “With each day, focusing on different events, we need to center our attention on the small improvements to build up towards a whole picture.”
Throwing
Marquette’s throwing team got two throwers on the podium during the championships last outdoor season.
In the outdoor season, the throwing events change from weight throw to javelin and discus while the shot put remains.
“Because of the transition, a big thing we’ve been doing is getting outside as much as possible no matter what condition,” senior Veronica Walinski said. “You can’t control what the weather is going to be like outdoors, and we really have to push with training for these events.”
Rogers said that he’s confident with the hammer throwers’ ability outdoors and in their transition.
“With Vinnie, Veronica, Mikayla and Mia, I believe that there’s quite a crew there that’s really good in the hammer throw,” Rogers said. “I’m looking forward to what they can do and seeing some of those athletes when we head outdoors.”
The Golden Eagles kick off their outdoor season March 31 when the distance runners head to the Washington University Distance Carnival in St. Louis, Missouri.
This article was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benhansonMU.
