As the indoor track and field regular season winds down, the Jumbos are using their last few meets of the year to prepare for the upcoming championship season. Among those races are this weekend's Valentine Invitational at Boston University and the MIT Invitational.
On the women's side, coach Kristen Morwick sees these final few races as an opportunity for her athletes to fine-tune their skills and earn some last-minute qualifications for the Nationals as they enter the climax of their season.
"We're going to send half the team to BU and the other half to MIT," Morwick said. "At BU we're looking to improve on our 4x400 times, and at MIT we have a few athletes that need to earn some qualifying times such as senior Sade Campbell in the high jump."
"We hope to race some really good times next weekend," senior Jenny Torpey said. "We need to get as many people as possible qualified for the Div. III championships because the more people we have qualified, the better chance we have of doing well."
While qualifying for Nationals is always one of the main goals of the season for an individual, both the men's and women's teams always look forward to the Div. III New England Championships, held Feb. 16-17, as the beginning of the championship season.
"Overall, New Englands is the most important meet," Torpey said. "It's the biggest meet in the year and the one we are always going to go for."
Over on the men's side, coach Ethan Barron and his team are doing everything they can to improve on their second-place finish last year at the New England Div. III Championships. The Jumbos will have their work cut out for them this week, and with the meet quickly approaching, Barron will use every opportunity to give his athletes more practice.
"We're planning to send most of our runners to BU," Barron said. "However, I'm not all that impressed by their jumping and field event areas so we will be taking many of our field event athletes to MIT on Saturday."
For some members of the team, this weekend is more than just preparation for the future weeks.
"They are very important," senior tri-captain Nate Cleveland said. "For some guys, it's an opportunity to get some better qualifying times so we have better starting positions in New England Div. III championships, but for others, it'll be a good opportunity to get some rest and recharge."
"We are using this weekend as a final chance to gear up for Div. III New Englands," Barron said. "These meets are highly competitive, but are also at venues where we have had a lot of success in the past. It would be great to see a bunch of personal bests by our runners, jumpers, and throwers so that we can use and build on that momentum next weekend."
The Jumbos will go into this weekend riding on their impressive performances from the weekend's Jumbo Stampede, in which they placed third out of 14.
The story of the meet was Cleveland's school record-breaking performance in 600.
"It feels good to have [the school record]," Cleveland said. "But it's not my main goal. We are all concentrated on winning the Div. III Championships because that's the last main thing we do together as a team."
While the men's and women's teams have had impressive seasons, both realize that the culmination and high point of their season lies two weeks ahead, and with the pressure starting to build, both coaches believe their teams are in great shape to perform well.
"At this point, we are hungry and relatively healthy," Barron said. "Hopefully these qualities will translate to peak performances next week."
- Carly Helfand contributed
