The season is already underway for the men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams, and many of the athletes look to be well on their way to a great season. The Knights have stellar athletes on both teams and although it is more of an individual sport than others, the teams as a whole look to be going forward well prepared for any tests that they may face throughout the season.
With the men’s team having three good showings so far this season—at the Early Season Invite at SUNY Brockport, the Rochester Institute of Technology Invitational and the Houghton Invitational at Houghton College—they seem to be in a good spot progressing forward. Junior Michael Segelin continued his great start to the season with a first place finish in the 200-meter dash at Houghton. Junior decathlon and heptathlon athlete Aidan Fullerton is projected to achieve great things for the Knights this season.
“[Fullerton] might be able to qualify for nationals out of the meet this weekend,” head coach Chris Popovici said. “He has lofty goals for himself and he wants to be the national champion. He’s one that we have big goals for on the men’s side.”
Having competed at the same three meets as the men, the women’s team has also put up exceptional performances across the board. Senior Keira Wood won the 800-meter race at Houghton. Sophomore Joanna Heath––who has competed in both running and throwing events this season while not being a decathlon or heptathlon athlete––has shown that she has exceptional talent at different types of events.
A jumper last season who decided to take up shotput this year, Heath is projected to make nationals in at least three events: high jump, long jump and triple jump. And because she’s a sophomore, she still has several seasons left to improve and become one of the best athletes in the country.
Although the teams have had a few meets already this season, the meat of their schedule is still ahead of them. Because of that, the teams have been using these early meets more like extended practices.
“A lot of these meets are relatively small, so we’ll train real hard throughout the week. So the results, we’ll call them ‘training through the meet’,” Popovici said. “We don’t really care what the results are.” But when a big meet comes around, the Knights make sure that they are prepared.
“Everyone competes, we always compete, but a meet like this weekend––a [Division I] meet––we make sure that we do really well,” Popovici said. “We want good marks and good times for everyone.” That attitude is something the Knights will be able to carry throughout the year. If they continue to always train as hard as they can throughout the week and push themselves to the limit at their meets, it will be a successful season for everyone involved.