By Samantha Burmeister

February 2010

The Elmhurst College men and women’s indoor track and field team kicked off their season on Jan. 30 participating in the University of Chicago Duals.  

The women’s team completed a 5-3 finish to come out with an overall victory. 

“Overall I think we performed really well for our first meet,” said sophomore Stephanie Thomson. “For a lot of us it was a new experience and a chance to see where we are and what we need to do. We aren’t quite where we need to be yet, but it’s still early in the season and we’re working on hard to make big improvement.”

Thomson came in fifth in the long jump and 10th in the 55 meter dash at the contest.

Other tops scores include senior Katlyn Bednarski’s third place finish in the 5,000 meters and freshman Antoneya Veasy-Smith’s fifth place in high jump.

The men’s side finished with a 3-4 record for the Duals. 

“I was pretty happy with how the meet went,” said head Coach James Akita. 

“It was our first meet of the year and it’s always tough to compete against schools that maybe raced two or even three times already. The first meet is just a way to get used to competing again and getting a starting point to work from.”
Freshman Jamall Lane finished second in the 55 hurdles while freshman Ryan Bock finished third in the shot put throw.

Sophomore Mark D’Angelo also placed ninth and seventh in the 55 and 400 meters, respectively.

Both the men and the women’s side experienced a good starting point to a hopefully successful season.

“One of our definite team goals this season is to of course improve on last season and get a higher place as a team at indoor and outdoor conference,” said D’Angelo. “In the sprints, we want to compete for the title in the 4x100 relay indoors, and 4x100 relays and 4x400 relay outdoors.”

In order to fulfill these team goals, the Jays will have to make adjustments and improvements little by little despite their inadequate training facilities.

“At this point, we are just looking to improve each week. Not having an indoor facility here puts us behind a lot of the other schools we compete with, so indoors is mainly a time to get ready for our outdoor season,” said Akita. 
“Even though, our team is much deeper this year in talent.”

With season goals in mind and the first meet under their belt, the EC men and women’s track and field team will compete at Illinois Wesleyan. 

“The important thing to remember is no one is better than the next person that is on your team because at the end it is a team not individual,” said Lane.

  The season is still young but with only a meet before the CCIW Indoor Championships and the NCAA  Indoor Championships.

“I look for us to keep improving each week,” said Akita.  “At this point, we just need to keep working hard and the improvement will come.”

The ‘Jays will face Chicagoland Indoor Championships on Feb. 13  at Romeoville.