As the indoor track season begins, the team is building off where they left off last year and working to refine leadership and performance.
Junior captain Mia Coven has played a crucial role in the team for the past three seasons. “I started winter track as a freshman and I did it to get in shape for lacrosse season initially. Now I’ve been doing every season since and doing outdoor track since I liked it so much,” Coven said.
As a track athlete, she focuses specifically on shorter-distance events. “I mainly compete in the 400 and 200 or relays that contain those distance distances for those distances. You need good leg strength and sprinting ability as well as minimal endurance,” Coven said.
Her biggest concern for the upcoming season is addressing her start, where she believes she has the most room for growth. “I hope to target my start since I need more improvement. They take a lot of practice and skill,” Coven said.
Senior captain Xinsu Lu started running her freshman year. “I joined because I wanted to continue my progress from my previous cross country season and I had a couple of friends that wanted to run too. However, I joined and stayed for the sprints team because I loved the supportive community and I discovered my strengths in running for speed instead of distance,” Lu said.
Despite having run short-distance events in the past, she is looking to change things up for this season. “Recently I’ve been focusing on my mid-distance events, which require a combination of endurance and drive,” Lu said.
It is not uncommon for track athletes to run into wear and tear injuries due to the strenuous nature of the sport. “A big issue I’ve had for the past four years is shin splints, which have been incredibly painful and annoying. This season to prevent them getting as bad as they have [been] previous years, I’ll have to focus on a lot of rehab such as massages, stretching, and icing,” Lu said.
Junior Bryson Filbert had a later start to his indoor track career. “I started winter track sophomore year [since] I wanted to train more for the spring,” Filbert said.
While Filbert mainly focuses on track events, he also includes field events in the winter season. “I compete in the 55m and 300m dash and high jump. It’s important you train a lot,” Filbert said.
Although the season has just begun, Filbert already knows what skillset he plans on targeting throughout the remainder of the season. “My weakness [is] my stamina and I plan to improve that by running farther distances,” he said.
Junior Charlie Rollins started his indoor track career as a freshman. “I started winter track as a freshman hoping to improve my speed for other sports,” Rollins said.
Rollins has a diverse range of events he competes in during the indoor track season. “I run the 55m high hurdles and triple jump. I’d have to say my jumping skills would help me out the most but I didn’t always have them,” Rollins said.
Similarly to Coven, Rollins hopes to address his start this season. “I don’t have the most explosive start, so I plan on increasing my upper leg strength to drive out of the block a bit faster,” Rollins said.
As a captain, Coven strives to bring the team closer together this season. “I hope to build a good team community this year as we lost a lot of seniors last year and I hope to help others improve,” Coven said.
Similarly, Lu also plans to help strengthen the sense of community in the team. “ I’ve found with such a large team and only one coach, it’s hard for him to focus on everyone’s individual needs. I like helping my teammates when they have questions about workouts, exercises, or even pointers on form. It’s good to work out as a team because we push each other to our limits,” Lu said.
Filbert also plans to collaborate with his teammates this season to allow for every team member to improve. “I plan on supporting my teammates by training them and watching them improve,” Filbert said.
So far this season their coach has prioritized mastering the fundamental skills. “Since it is the beginning of the season, coach has been focusing on the basics, which is important because even for some of the returning members we need to brush up on our fundamentals and it allows us to ease into the season,” Rollins said.
