Injuries could prove to be a serious thorn in the side of the women's track team as the Jumbos gear up for Saturday's Snowflake Classic, the first meet of the outdoor season.
The team will kick off the season without two of its top runners - senior tri-captain Sarah Crispin and junior Katy O'Brien, both of whom ran in the distance medley relay at this year's NCAA Div. III Indoor Championships, held at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. Accompanied by juniors Cat Beck and Kaleigh Fitzpatrick, the foursome finished in a record-breaking time of 11:35.54, just behind Wisconsin-Platteville's team of senior Marcia Taddy and sophomores Bobbi Arand, Emma Dreis and Jessica Scott.
Along with other members of the team, Crispin and O'Brien will take time off this weekend to fully recover from injuries sustained during the indoor season.
"We just have had a lot of injury issues between seasons," Coach Kristen Morwick said. "It's going to be a slow start. People kind of pushed really hard, so we're starting outdoor with quite a few little things. Hopefully by the end of the season, we'll be back up to where we were, but some of the injuries may be more serious than we can control and could affect the team significantly."
The team will also have to adjust to the spring schedule, which is significantly shorter than the winter's. After this weekend's meet, the Jumbos will compete at the Coast Guard Invitational, the George Davis Invitational, and the MIT Coed Invitational before launching into the postseason, which begins April 28 with the NESCAC Championships held in Middlebury, Vt.
"We basically have four weeks to qualify for NESCACs, and then we're in the postseason," Morwick said. "There are four meets and then championships, and if people don't get in qualifiers by the MIT meet, they're pretty much done. Knowing it's a shorter season, you change your strategy a little bit. There's a lot more emphasis on those four meets, and it puts a little more pressure on [the athletes]."
The schedule is not the only adaptation the team will have to make as it heads outdoors, as weather conditions and a different track size may also affect individual and team performance.
"The main adjustment is obviously that we're outside now, so the weather makes a really big difference," senior Jess Mactas said. "The past few years, we've had some meets that have been pouring rain and windy and everything. It makes it really difficult to compete to our potential, but hopefully this season we will have some good weather."
"Just this week, we switched to the outdoor track," freshman Kerry Virgien said. "We've been practicing inside, and it's hard for people to adapt that quickly."
Despite some uncertainty at the get-go, the spring season will not be without bright spots for the Jumbo squad. Beck, who capped off the indoor season with a fifth-place showing in the 5000-meter run that earned her All-American honors, will re-take the track this weekend at home. In addition, Morwick will test-run some of her fastest 4x200 relay runners this weekend - including Mactas, sophomores Halsey Stebbins and Aubrey Wasser, and freshman Logan Crane - in order to nail down the lineup for a promising 4x100 team.
"We're running two teams this weekend to figure out the best combinations," Morwick said. "We should have a really good short spring relay."
"We have a pretty big sprinting group right now, and [Morwick] thinks we can put together a really good team that could possibly break the school record," Mactas said. "Qualifying for Nationals would also be really exciting - I don't even know the last time the [4x100] has gone to Nationals. It would be a really great opportunity."
Although every runner will take different steps in her training to ready herself for the postseason, Morwick is confident her top runners will lead the team to a successful spring showing.
"There's kind of a mixed plan for the team based on how far we project them to go in the season, their injuries, and what we're gearing towards - New Englands, NESCACs, or NCAAs," Morwick said. "Everyone is a little different, and it's hard to come up with a total team plan with such a large team with varying degrees of talent, but our top kids should still be our top kids. Hopefully, when they need to be performing well, they will be."
