Waynesburg University’s indoor track team is taking the season in strides as the women and men’s teams competed in their second meet of the season Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Pioneer Open hosted by Marietta College. 

Although some athletes competed at the team’s first meet of the season at West Virginia University, this meet served as the first competition of the season for a handful of the distance runners as they are transitioning  from their cross country season, where they placed third in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference [PAC] for the first time since 2014. 

Even though the meet was the first of the season for many, senior Michael Cappelli was pleased with how the meet went. 

“We had a lot of people competing for the first time collegiately and I think they did very well considering that,” Cappelli said.

The men’s team placed 12th out of 16 teams, beating the only other PAC team at the meet in Bethany.

Cappelli competed in the 800-meter dash, finishing second in his heat, as well as the 4×400 meter relay, which placed fourth in its heat.

Fellow senior Kaleb McDiffitt also competed on Saturday in the high jump and shot put. He performed a personal best in both events in addition to placing eighth in the men’s high jump, contributing points to the men’s overall team score. 

Speaking in relation to the sprinters and field events, McDiffitt said they are progressing nicely.

“The distance team took the week off so the freshman men have yet to compete, but the freshman sprinters and jumpers have been doing very well,” he said. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Cappelli said the team can accomplish big things not just with the freshman sprinters and field events but with the distance team as well.

“I think the team we have this year has a lot of potential,” he said.I’m really excited about it because the distance guys have a lot of momentum coming off of the country season,” Cappelli said. “Plus, we have a lot of new sprinters and jumpers that are going to make an immediate impact. But it’s also early so a lot of things can happen.”

With head coach Michelle Cross out for the majority of the season, taking on leadership is important to the upperclassman of the team, assistant coach, Bill Lubich has stepped into the head role in Cross’ absence. 

“Coach Lube has done a wonderful job in the absence of Coach Rocky and the team captains and upperclassmen have been stepping up as well,” McDiffitt said. However, we do miss Rocky and her leadership and are excited to have her back.”

Cappelli is one of the new captains who has also been able to step up.

“I guess as the new captain I want be able to help the rest of the guys in anyway I can no matter what their event is… if I can make an impact and help someone in some way then I’m going to try to do that,” he said.

Aside from improving leadership this year, the team hopes to follow in the footsteps of the men’s cross country team and continue to move up in the PAC rankings.

“Our goal for this year as a team would be to improve our ranking in the PAC standings from years past and I think we have a really great chance to do that if everyone continues to work hard like they have been,” McDiffitt said. 

The men’s track teams will compete in the Spire Midwest Track & Field open Saturday, Jan. 25, where they will be able to stride toward that goal.