Track and field views final regular season meet as practice

The Waynesburg indoor track & field teams will travel to Gambier, Ohio for the Kenyon College Classic this Saturday, Feb. 16. It’s the final meet before the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships which are set for Feb. 21 in Youngstown, Ohio.

“So, we picked Kenyon really specifically because it was a lower-key meet and we like to do that right before going into PAC’s because, at this point, it’s kind of a points chess game where you are looking at what the other teams have scored so far, their talents and where you’re at and you are finally just are trying to get as many points possible,” said head coach Michelle Cross. “Everyone that can compete will be there to compete.”

The biggest reason she said that they need a “low-key” meet is because the men and women’s team is very young—13 upperclassmen on the men’s team and six on the women’s team. Even though it is a meet, they can still treat it like a practice.

“So, meets are very important to us because even though they are as much competitions a lot of the times they are also a practice for us because it is our first chance to get a full run with it,” said Cross. “If we have the opportunity, you are healthy and you can go to the meet then you are going because as much as it is a competition it is also just good practice getting in and getting the reps and getting access to a pit or a facility.”

This isn’t just for this year Cross said, every season the indoor track & field teams have to practice in the gymnasium and do weightlifting. For Cross, she said it’s tough for her and the other coaches to convince the team that doing weightlifting and practicing the small things will help them when it comes time to compete.

“So, a lot of what we do in indoor is just like battling that, especially with the athletes who get anxious and are like ‘I just feel like they want to be able to see it all come together in one piece, but I keep practicing these small little parts of it,’” said Cross. “That’s always a huge frustration that is not new or unique, it happens every year, but it is definitely something that is always characterized by indoor.”

Cross combined one of the three main views of Waynesburg University with her indoor track & field teams. That view is “faith”.

“I told them the other day actually that you have to put in a lot of faith into the process because a lot of times, we usually just think as faith purely as a response to the Lord, but you are practicing very, very small parts of each aspect of your event,” said Cross. “You aren’t getting to see how you are going to perform on a track because we don’t have access to a track the way that we would like. So, because of that, you just have to have the faith that working the small particular jump techniques or the small particular aspect of the hurdle or running or whatever will ultimately pay off and come together when you actually go to do it. But you never get to see it done the whole way through.”