Welcome to the Coaches Corner!

Hello Marquette Track & Field Alumni, Family and Friends,

Welcome to the Marquette Track Club Coaches Corner Blog! Over the course of the season the other coaches, Mike Nelson, Mike Koenning, and I hope to offer our thoughts and insight on the team and the season. I hope this gives you a little insight into what is happening on the 2008 MU Track and Field team.

First off, for those who do not know me, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Bert Rogers and this is my fourth season at Marquette but first season as head coach of the track and field team. During my time at Marquette I have met many of you and I am looking forward to meeting more of you as time moves on.

I am originally from Janesville, WI and attended Parker High School. After high school I attended UW-Milwaukee and was primarily a 200-400 sprinter. My first coaching gig was as Head Boys Coach at Cedarburg high school. I coached the Bulldogs for two years before heading to Kansas City for a three year stint as the sprints and hurdles coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In October of 2004 I moved back to Milwaukee and started at Marquette.

I have very fond memories as an athlete of competing against Marquette and always looked forward to racing guys like Brian Olsson, Brandon Pliska and Brian Hardin. I must admit that after having been a student-athlete at UWM it was strange to work at Marquette at first, but I have now come to really love this place. Marquette really is special, but of course I don’t need to tell any of you that!

The move to Milwaukee was also good for my family. My wife April is from the area, so both our immediate families are very close. As a collegiate track coach, that isn’t usually the case. Now that I have a son (Duncan, who turns 2 in April) it is especially nice!

Enough about me, this past weekend we competed at the Meyo Invitational hosted by the University of Notre Dame. This was an excellent meet for us this weekend. We had our first NCAA qualifying time of 2008 when Cassie Peller hit the provisional mark in the Mile. Her time of 4:46.94 was just 0.94 off her PR.

We also broke a 28 year-old record when Freshman sprinter Tyler O’Brien took down the 300m record held by MU sprint great John Rydeski. Tyler’s time of 34.73 sliced off 0.01 off the previous record of 34.74. Tyler now owns the 60m, 200m and 300m indoor school and freshman records. Pretty nice freshman year so far I would say…

Other team highlights included a 12’1.5” vault by indoor school record holder Carrie Schmid. That mark tied her own school record and personal best jump. For those of you who follow the vault, Carrie is just moving up to a bigger pole, which will ultimately enable her to make the next bar (aprox. 12-6) and start taking attempts at 13-0. The height she missed (12’7.5”) is the same height she needs to make to qualify for regionals outdoors.

Freshman Nick Sczcech ran an impressive 14:42.84 to qualify for the BIG EAST in the 5000m. That time makes him the 5th fastest ever at Marquette in the indoor 5k. To give you an idea of the type of competition Nick will face in the BIG EAST, it will probably take 14:30 to place in the top 8 and score. This conference is crazy-good in the mid and long distances. Nick, however, has the talent to get there! Coach Nelson has said from day one that Nick has the talent to take it to that next level. I am excited to watch him grow and develop as a runner these next few years. He is one of several in the young and exciting crew of mid and long distance runners we have on this team.

Sophomore Erynn James placed 4th overall in the women’s high jump. Her jump of 5’6” was a little over an inch off her PR, but to place that high in a national level meet is impressive none the less!

Redshirt sophomore Eric Meissner had a nice weekend, setting personal best, and BIG EAST Qualifying times, in both the 500m on Friday (1:05.13), and 800m on Saturday (1:53.08). Those times were good for fifth, and tenth, respectively, on the all-time MU top-ten lists.

Senior Kaitlyn Chambers has had an excellent indoor season so far, and she continued that trend as she ran the 2nd fasted 1000m in school history, running a personal best 2:52.37.

Redshirt sophomore Sarah Verdoliva had two personal bests as she ran 1:16.23 in the 500m on Friday night, which is good for 3rd on the all-time list, and 2:13.94 in the 800m on Saturday afternoon, good for 6th on the all-time list.

Sophomore Jayne Grebinski ran a lifetime best 9:48.51 in the 3000m which makes her 6th on the all time list.

The Meyo invitational is always an exciting meet, and one that I look forward to watching as well. The feature event every year is the “Meyo Mile”. It is a sure bet that one will see at least one person run sub-4:00 and this year did not disappoint as three broke through the barrier each for the first time in their career.

In addition to the Meyo meet, we sent a small group to compete at UW-Whitewater. The group competing at Whitewater was mostly those who are not quite strong enough to compete at Meyo in their event, and was close to hitting a BIG EAST qualifying mark and needed an opportunity to try and get it. This strategy worked as Freshman John Kusowski qualified for the BIG EAST conference meet in the Weight Throw. With John qualified, that means that every thrower has qualified for the BIG EAST!

Next week will be a week off competition for our team as we enter our final phase of training for the BIG EAST Indoor Championships. The team has been training and competing hard these past few weeks, and we want to be sure that we are ready for our trip to New York for the BIG EAST meet.

It was especially nice to see several alums at the meet this weekend. There was a contingent that ventured to South Bend to watch the MU men’s basketball team take on the Irish and then headed over to the meet. Though I was busy with the high Jump and pole vault and unable to come over to visit, your presence certainly did not go unnoticed!

We always have great parental and alumni support at our meets, I know I speak for our entire team when I say we appreciate it! If you attend one of our meets, don’t be a stranger! Stop by the team camp and say hi! There are many of you who I have not met, and I hope to do so in the future. I hope to see all of you at some point this season!

GO MARQUETTE!

Bert Rogers