One last "Tune Up" before the MAC Indoor Championships

By Bill Lawson

Head Coach

Purdue was a good experience and a good team environment. Going against Purdue and a few other Division I teams, I thought it created a good atmosphere. It obviously wasn’t the same as a conference atmosphere, but it was kind of similar.

I liked that we rallied as a team and had a lot of team energy. Those are things we will need in two weeks when we host the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships.

We had a lot of different athletes move forward or at least stay consistent. It’s always huge in track and field to go through a weekend and have no injuries. A lot of times the healthiest team is the most successful team at the conference championships.

We have a couple of minor injuries that are on the mend. We don’t have anything that is so severe that we are overly concerned. Everybody should be hitting on all eight cylinders come the MAC Championships.

We have a couple of kids down, but they are very much on the mend. We rested Dior Delophont. We rested Cody Jones. We rested Cory Miller. Those are all people we expect to go out and score points at the MAC Championships. 

This week we have our Kent Stat Tune Up. It is exactly what the name of the meet suggests. It is preparation for next week’s championships. A lot of our kids will have a much lighter load. Some will completely rest. Some of our better kids may due just one event to stay sharp. There are a number of kids who need to race again to insure they are in the fast heats and to get their qualifying status going into the MAC Championships. 

It is a week to tune up skills to be ready to go. I don’t know anyone who will be doing any triples or heavy doubles. There is the potential for someone running a single event coming back in a relay. I haven’t talked to our sprint coach yet, but we could rest the relays this weekend.

This week is also an opportunity for our vaulters and throwers to get one more good mark in.

This will be a large meet with a lot of teams in from all divisions. It’s an opportunity for our kids to rest of move forward.

Probably the biggest thing about the weekend is Matthias Tayala hasn’t thrown for four weeks. He’ll be back in action this weekend. We have just been getting him ready after an injury over the holidays. Coach Nathan Fanger has done a great job, as has our training staff, and now we are looking forward to seeing what Matthias can do this weekend.