By Steve Holt, Copy Editor
Despite freakish fluctuation in the weather from one day to the next, the men’s and women’s track and field teams have been training this week for their first chance to qualify for the Division II Indoor Track and Field National Championship in Boston.
The Wildcats will travel to Lubbock for Saturday’s Red Raider Open, the first of two indoor meets on the campus of Texas Tech University. ACU will face Division I talent from the 12th-ranked Baylor Bears, No. 24 Texas Tech, Texas-El Paso and others.
Head coach Jon Murray said the goals for the first indoor meet are twofold.
“First, we want to qualify some people for nationals, and we feel good about that,” Murray said. “Second, we want to see where we are in the first meet.”
Both Wildcat track and field teams have competitive schedules, with meets at Arkansas, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech.
Sprint stars Christie Van Wyk and Nic Alexander will once again lead the Wildcats’ championship pursuit, while seeking individual titles in the 100 and 200 meters themselves. Bernard Manirakiza, Jean-Marie Ndukimana and Martin O’Kello, all coming off success in cross country, will lead the ever-dangerous ACU distance attack this season. Murray said Manirakiza could place high in or win the men’s mile.
Van Wyk said he hopes hard work in the off-season translates into success in meets.
“I’ve really worked hard in the preseason,” said Van Wyk, who placed second in the 100 meters at last year’s outdoors nationals. “I’m not really big on indoor, but I am going to try hard this year.”
Newcomers looking to make immediate impacts include pole vaulter Cory Aguilar and 200-meter sprinter Delt Cockrell, both Texas high school state champions their senior years.
A major hurdle for the men’s team, however, will making up for the loss of 56 of the team’s 90 points at the 2002 outdoor nationals. Ten-time national champion distance runner John Kemboi and all-American high jumper Terrance Woods are both gone, but Murray said the points this year will have to come from more athletes qualifying in more events.
“We have to have more people step up,” Murray said. “We need more people in the sprints, different distance runners and the throwers.”
The women’s team only lost significant points in national champion pole vaulters Jane McNeill and Meredith Garner, and Murray said the team is “in significantly better position than last year.” Freshman long jumper Angela Campbell was an all-state selection at Odessa High School, and Murray said she should make an immediate impact. Olessya Belyayeva, a freshman from Kazakhstan, will make contributions in the long jump, sprints and possibly the high jump. Freshman Yuliya Stashkiv of the Ukraine will help the women’s distance squad indoors and outdoors.
Junior distance runner Nick Branen boiled end success down to one thing.
“We just have to all get on the ball at the same time,” Branen said. “That’s the key.”
