Waynesburg University track & field head coach Michelle Cross attributes the lack of athletes as one reason the indoor team finished third in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. In outdoor, she said she hopes this problem will have less of an impact.

After the first two track & field meets of the year, Waynesburg will head to Bethany College Saturday for the Bethany Invitational. At the invitational, Cross said she is looking forward to helping the new additions to the men and women’s team.

“I legitimately think we had the talent to win [the championship] but we just ran out of fresh people to put into events,” Cross said. “By the end of it, we hit the distance medley race and the 5K and the 4×4 and a lot of our women were very, very tired at that point. When you are looking at outdoor and you have a couple of new additions to our team, especially on the women’s side.”

The new additions to the women’s team increase the Yellow Jackets’ depth in the field events, the sprints and mid-distance events.

“Omyrah Davis has joined and Lindsay Mullett. You are seeing them trying to get back into the swing of things and get in shape,” Cross said. “Just having those extra numbers, who are contributing numbers where you know they are going to positively affect the team, that is going to be helpful.”

With the boost in the roster, Cross said the next step is finding how to best utilize the new members on the team.

“I think the biggest thing with the women is trying to figure out the best place to use them,” Cross said.

On the men’s side of the track & field program, Cross said the team is still waiting for some players to return from injury, including JaWuan Jones. According to Cross, she is hopeful Jones will be back in the lineup to compete at the Bethany Invitational.

As a whole, Cross said the track & field program shares a common goal through the beginning of the outdoor season, with progression being the focus.

“The goal pretty much for the first six weeks of the season are the same, which are just like try and progress as much as we can,” Cross said. “The way this falls, we kind of view indoor and outdoor as one coherent season so where this falls for almost all of the athletes, this is some of their heaviest training.”

As the team prepares for the Bethany Invitational, they may encounter rain along the way. Though the forecast is predicting rain over the weekend, Cross said moderate rain will not alter the team’s game plan.

“Bethany tends to be, if it’s a nice day, it can be windy as well,” Cross said. “If it’s just like a little drizzle or like cloudy or something, it probably won’t be too bad of a meet. Of course, it is Pennsylvania, so that could also mean pouring down rain the whole time.”

Most events will continue through the rain, though Cross said pole vault would most likely be one of the first events to be canceled due to rain.