The BG track and field team looks to continue its success from last season as they head to Eastern Michigan for the EMU Holiday Meet.
Sophomore Makenzie Wheat, among others, is looking forward to the warm-up before the first meet of the season.
“I just want to get better,” Wheat said. “[Throughout my freshman year], I learned the process and what I need to do to be successful at meets.”
Wheat will be competing in the shotput event, where she came in sixth place last year.
The Holiday meet consists of 10 events such as the weight throw, shotput, triple jump, 200 meter and 1600 relay races. Despite BG having an experienced team, the bulk of the runners are still relatively young. In the 31 events the team will compete in this year, 11 of those will feature a majority of freshmen runners.
“The big thing is building on our momentum from last season,” head coach Lou Snelling said. “In a lot of ways we use the indoor season to build into the outdoor season and hitting all the marks to qualify for the MAC championship.”
The veterans of the track team all have experience in the big meets. There are currently six student-athletes that have scored in the Mid-American Conference indoor championship. Some of these athletes include redshirt sophomore Taylor Rambo, junior Andrea Arnold, redshirt senior Brittany Sinclair and junior
Demetra Taylor.
“In general, specific thing has been conditioning all fall season,” Snelling said. “We’re still building fitness and we want to see where we’re at”.
This meet will be a good test to see where the Falcons are in terms of ability. The Falcons will be competing in a total of 33 times over the 10 events at Eastern Michigan. The next meet takes place in two weeks on January 15.
“We do hope to see the players give their best,” Snelling said. “The next big thing is seeing who we’ll get us into the conference level.”
“We have to be in the top 20 to participate, the most challenging one is NCAA tournament,” Snelling said. “Those are the really big things we look at as the standards for success this season.”
The EMU Holiday meet begins at 4 p.m. at Bob Parks Tracks in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
