Runners take your mark. Get set. Go!
SRU’s men’s indoor track team will begin it’s 2015 season this Friday at the YSU Icebreaker in Youngstown, OH.
Assistant Coach Bill Jordan said that he feels the team is incredibly strong. Though he primarily focuses on the team’s pole vaulters, javelin-throwers, multi-event athletes, and helps with all three jumps, he said that he is confident in the team as a whole.
“We have a large number of returning athletes in all the different events,” Jordan said. “It’s hard to pinpoint one athlete. They are all going to do a wonderful job for us. We expect good things from everybody.”
Last season, the Rock finished 2nd in the PSAC Indoor Championship. While Jordan credits the experience his team has for the success he thinks will come in the future, there are a lot of big shoes to fill.
The Rock acquired seven 1st place finishes in last years indoor championships, but did not return all of the athletes who won or helped win the events. Hunter Williams (200-meter dash and 4X400-meter relay), Tyler Melius (mile and distance medley relay), and Trevor Miller (shot put) all contributed at least one first place finish for the Rock in the meet, but will not return this year due to graduation.
The team does, however, return a number of athletes who made major contributions to last years high-ranked finish headlined by sophomore multi Noah Bostick.
Bostick won the heptathlon with 4,994 points in the championship meet in his first season at the Rock. Bostwick said that the win was the highlight of his first season, but he is now shooting for bigger.
“This upcoming season I hope to potentially break the school record and qualify at nationals,” Bostwick said.
Bostwick has the opportunity to break those records this weekend against some high level competition at the YSU Icebreaker.
While many of the the distance runners will be resting this weekend after just coming off a long cross country season, Coach Jordan said that all the other athletes are ready to go. He said the high level of competition will help the team recognize where it is and what its athletes need to work on.
“There are a lot of D1 schools that are going to be there and right now we are just trying to hit our conference qualifying marks and national provisional marks,” Jordan said. “There are going to be kids from Youngstown, Robert Morris, and PSAC west schools like Cal and Clarion. Those kids are the kids we are looking to compare ourselves to.”
Jordan, Bostwick, and the rest of the Rock’s athletes have an opportunity to start the season off on a high note this weekend. With a lot of key returning athletes and the confidence that other athletes will step up, Jordan said this is only the first step to what he said is the team’s main goal.
“I think we really have a shot to move up to the first place position and knock-off Shippensburg,” Jordan said.
