T&F Opens Season in Three Different States
1/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin track and field team will be sending athletes all over the country this weekend to open the 2015 indoor season. A small group of athletes will be going to Akron, Ohio, for the third annual Akron Pole Vault Convention on Saturday and Sunday, while the rest of the team will head either to Houston for the Houston Indoor Opener or to Fayetteville for the Arkansas Invitational on Friday.
“We’re very excited to begin the season after what we saw at the tail of our season last fall with the success that the cross country team had and with the success our track and field program had in the offseason as well,” said head coach Phil Olson. “What we saw from our program this fall was very positive. We culminate the fall semester with a purple/white meet and had a lot of PRs and top-notch performances there. Going into January and into the season, we’re very excited.
“On the other hand, we haven’t seen our athletes until this week – it’s been a three/four week period of time and a lot can happen in that period of time. We’re cautiously optimistic as we head into the season. To have your athletes come back on a Monday for practice and they compete that Friday also causes a little bit of angst.”
The busy weekend kicks off an indoor season filled with prestigious meets leading up to the Southland Conference Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, from Feb. 16-17. SFA will send athletes to the Texas A&M Invitational next week, the Howie Ryan Invitational in Houston from Jan. 30-31 and the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque from Feb. 6-7, before setting its sights on two league titles and the NCAA Indoor Championships.
“We’re very positive right now,” Olson said. “The attitude on the team has been great, they’re all ready to get back to work and that’s what we’re doing – just working hard. We’ll see what happens.”
After claiming numerous individual honors and awards in 2014, including a plethora of All-America performances, the SFA track and field program has scheduled plenty of elite meets to prepare its athletes for continued success in 2015.
“We don’t just have a conference level team now – we have some elite athletes that make us a national level program,” said Olson. “We want to make sure that they get the very best competition that they can.”
The top three pole vault finishers in the 2014 SLC Indoor Championships – Colton Ross, Cameron Meyer and Daven Murphree – and Kansas transfer Demi Payne will be representing SFA in Akron for the pole vault competition on Saturday and Sunday. Ross, a two-time All-American, took fifth place in Akron last year after clearing 5.35 meters.
“Our pole vaulters have had a terrific fall and they’re going to be opening up at a pole vault competition,” Olson said. “They’re going to see some of the very best pole vaulters in the country.
“We’re also sending a group of elite athletes to Arkansas and they will be on a great track – the track where the NCAA Indoor Championships are going to be this year. For them it’s more about getting to compete at a great facility where there will be some outstanding competition, including Arkansas, and we are just happy to be there.”
The remainder of the team will be heading to Houston early on Friday morning. Among the large group will be a good portion of the SFA cross country team switching gears as they take to the track. Sophomore distance runner Charles Mathenge has already represented the program well this year, breaking school records in the 8K and 10K while earning a spot in the 2014 Cross Country National Championships held in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Nov. 22.
“The Houston Opener will be a large meet – it always is,” said Olson. “We’ll have some very young men and women in there who haven’t competed collegiately before in uniform. Then we’ll have some upperclassmen and I expect very solid effort right off the bat from them. Our goals are to generate some momentum going into our next meet which will be Texas A&M next weekend and on after that.”
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