The Waynesburg men’s indoor track & field team competed in the Spire Institute Midwest Indoor Open in Geneva, Ohio last Saturday. Team results were not recorded in the event, but athletes were given an opportunity to compete individually in a collection of events.

According to Cross, this was a new experience for the Jackets as they had never competed at SPIRE prior to last weekend.

“It was the first time we’ve ever made the trip up there,” said Cross. “I was extremely impressed because it was such a competitive and efficient meet.”

The meet Saturday came a week after the cancellation of the Carnegie Mellon Invitational, meaning a two-week layoff was created on the team’s schedule. Cross noted the challenge of not having a meet since the Marty Pushkin Classic on Jan. 11, especially as each week gets more intense for the team.

“We structure our meets very specifically coming in [to the season],” said Cross. “To not have that meet in between to build them up wasn’t exactly perfect, but I thought they handled it well, and that’s a testament to how well-run the meet was.”

When asked which athlete stood out the most, Cross was quick to praise the performance of sophomore Dorian Hardy, who is new to the team this season. Hardy collected a distance of 13 meters in the triple jump event.

“We knew he was good in the triple jump coming out of high school, but it had been a couple years since he competed in it,” Cross said. “He set a [personal record] about two and a half feet farther than what his high school PR was.”

Another new face to the team this season is sophomore JaWuan Jones, who also competes for Waynesburg University as a wide receiver on the football team. Jones placed 48th among 123 runners in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.51 seconds. He also competed in the 60-meter dash, getting a time of 7.41 seconds and placing at 52 out of 100 runners.

“We knew when he was coming over from football that he was a very fast and powerful athlete,” said Cross. “How that translates to track is always a question, but so far I’m very pleased by how he is transferring.”

As the event distance became greater, freshman Silas Mays made improvements, recording a time of 2:04.1 in the 800-meter sprint. Out of 84 runners to take part, the time for Mays ranked him 35th.

“He cruised and looked really strong,” said Cross, “It looks like there are better times ahead for him as well.”

Now two meets into the indoor season, Cross noted the scheduled progression of the season from this point.

“We use indoor as sort of a preparation for outdoor [track & field season],” Cross said. “It’s a very non-specific type of training, starting off very general and getting more and more specific as we go.”

The Yellow Jackets will return to competition this weekend with 5K runners going to the National Mid-Major Invite at Youngstown State and the rest of the squad going to Mt. Union.