Early Indoor Action
The last couple of weeks have been flown by. We brought a large portion of the team back on January 5th, which was a week before school started, to get in some quality training to better prepare us for the indoor track season. We used our first two indoor meets, the Grand Valley State Laker Early Bird and the Badger Classic as workouts in a sense. We were training through those two meets to be better prepared for the meat and potatoes of our schedule starting this upcoming weekend at Notre Dame.

Grand Valley Laker Early Bird
Grand Valley State has a brand-new 300m track, and the Early Bird meet was their 2nd ever on the new track. We had a somewhat arduous journey as we left Milwaukee Friday morning in the middle of a snowstorm. What would be a 4.5 hour trip ended up taking about 6. Though the performances across the board were typical of an early season meet, we did have several compete hard and place high. On the women’s side, junior Anna Weber and senior Jessi Ehlen won the 3000 and the weight throw respectively. On the men’s side senior Mark Kopecki won the mile. You can find all the placers and results here: http://gomarquette.cstv.com/sports/c-track/recaps/010909aaa.html

UW-Madison Badger Classic
Last year this was our first meet back after break. This year, with 2 weeks of training and one meet under our belt, we saw marked improvements in our performances compared to the 2008 Badger Classic. Bringing the team back a week earlier is already paying dividends. You can find a full recap and meet results here: http://gomarquette.cstv.com/sports/c-track/recaps/011709aaa.html

Behind the results: Laker Early Bird and the Badger Classic

• Mike O’Brien, who is a 400 Hurdler outdoors, ran a 1.5 sec PR in the 400m at Grand Valley. The 400 hurdlers trained with the 800 runners this fall and the difference is striking. At the Notre Dame meet in December Mike ran a 1.2 second PR in the 500. He also ran 1:23.71 in the 600 at the Badger Classic… his first time running the event. Jay Emmer and Tom Cassady are also 400 hurdlers who are now training with the 800 group. Jay has battles a lower back problem that has hampered his ability to compete, but when healthy he has vastly improved his workouts over last year. Tom trained with the 800 group (and Jon Shaffer who was also an 800 runner/ 400 hurdler) as a freshman and really ran well. As a sophomore and junior he trained more as speed-type 400 runner / 400 hurdler and fared OK, but not as well as his freshman year. With a return to more strength / endurance training Tom looks like the Tom we all saw run some impressive 4x400 relay legs as a freshman.

• Senior Carrie Schmid, who is redshirting this season, competed unattached and won the women’s pole vault with a jump of 12-5.5. That mark is an indoor PR for Carrie and would have been a new indoor school record.

• RS-freshman Albojay Deacon, who earned a walk-on spot on the team during our fall tryout, qualified for the BIG EAST meet in the Triple Jump making him our first ever BIG EAST qualifier in the men’s triple jump. We have now qualified someone in every event to the indoor BIG EAST meet at one point or another. Out doors, the only two events that we have yet to qualify anyone in are the 110hurdles and the triple jump.

• Freshman Stephanie Grant, daughter of former MU star half-miler Jeff Grant, made her MU debut Saturday running the 200m at the Badger Classic. Dad Jeff and Mom Joan were in the stands as Stephanie won her heat. Stephanie is coming off of an IT band injury that kept her out of training for much of November and December. One she gets back into racing shape, we look for her to contribute mostly in the 400m this year.

• Freshman Jenny Zahn, who ran the 200 and the 4x400 relay at the Badger Classic, made her MU debut in the 400m at the Grand Valley Laker Early Bird after transferring at the semester from Xavier University. Jenny was on the team all of three days before seeing her first competition. Jenny will compete in mostly 400s and relays indoors and the 400 hurdles outdoors.

Here are a few pictures from the first couple weeks of practice...