The past two years the Waynesburg University women’s indoor track & field team has won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship.

This week, Feb. 21, the Yellow Jackets will defend their title at the PAC Indoor Championship in Youngstown, Ohio.

Head coach Michelle Cross said this year is comparable to last year’s PAC championship, but with a smaller and younger team.

“We are in the same situation as last year, on paper being about 15 points behind,” said Cross. “The difference is that we have a younger and smaller-sized team.”

Being primarily a young team, Cross is confident that the team will perform well when the time comes.

“I have seen our top scorers, like freshman Aubrey Wingeart, perform well in a situation like this in the PAC cross country championship when we only won by two points,” said Cross. “We were losing in that race and the team turned it around and won, so I know the team is capable of doing that again.”

Senior distance runner Teghan Simonton is a captain on the team and plays a big leadership role for the Yellow Jackets.

“I try to mentor the young distance runners as best as I can, but they don’t always need it because they ran in high school,” said Simonton. “But for a championship meet it is important for me and the other captains to keep them calm and not let them get nervous because it is an important meet.”

Simonton agrees with Cross about the team being able to perform well when it is needed.

“Our team does a really good job pulling together when the everything is on the line,” said Simonton. “My expectations would be to live up to that standard that we set for ourselves and everyone should show up and do their job and we can win.”

After winning the previous two indoor championships, Cross believes the team will have pressure on them winning again.

“When you have a team that has done well in the past, there is this fear that you don’t want to be the class that loses the streak,” said Cross. “But you can’t look back at previous years, you need to take what your team is now and what you can do with the talent you have.”

Simonton also agrees the team has pressure going into this meet.

“There is always pressure to always win again and we don’t have the same depth as last year,” said Simonton. “But we are still close and we have to make up the points wherever we can.”

Cross’s strategy going into this meet is to rely on the consistent scorers on the team.

“We need to capitalize on the athletes that we know that can get it done,” said Cross. “We do not have a lot of wiggle room this year we need to be creative to see what will work best.”

Cross mentioned sophomore jumper Amber Yauch, junior thrower Jordan Simpson and sophomore hurdler Katherine Fair as consistent athletes throughout the year. She’ll look for them to play an important role in the PAC Championship meet.