Tracksters Wrap Up Indoor Season At UW Final Qualifier
3/2/2012 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University track and field teams will close out their inaugural indoor season at the University of Washington's Final Qualifier Saturday.
Head coach Pat Tyson and assistant coach Patty Ley will send 36 Bulldogs to the Dempsey Indoor Saturday. Nineteen Bulldog women will be competing in the 800 meter, 3,000 meter and the mile events while 17 Bulldog men will race the 800 meter, 3,000 meter, 5,000 meter and mile. The meet starts at 11 a.m., but the first event to feature the Bulldogs is the women's mile run at 11:30 a.m., followed by the men's mile run at 11:45 a.m.
Tyson said Saturday's meet is really low key, but he still expects top performances from his student-athletes.
"Our goal is to see if we can break some more school records and set ourselves up for a really great outdoor season," Tyson said. "This is kind of a test effort to see how we are doing in our progression to peak in May or early June."
Most of the Bulldogs are ready to return to the track after fighting injuries and illness at the University of Idaho's Vandal Collegiate Feb. 18, but they will be without the services of redshirt juniors Chris Boyle and Lindsey Drake. Both Tyson and Ley felt it was best to give their top runners some more time to recover and turn their focus to the outdoor season.
"We don't want to rush them," Tyson said. "That's the nice thing about the indoor season, its not that important. It's fun and you want to be there. Everybody wants to go to Seattle on that fast venue. But we are going to hold some people up with some owies."
On the men's side, sophomore Robert Walgren will be the lone Bulldog racing in Section 2 of the men's 3,000 meter. Walgren will pursue his third straight first-place finish and will look to break his school-record time of 8:31.78, which he set at the Vandal Collegiate.
"I know he will break the school record again, unless one of his teammates breaks the record," Tyson said.
Section 1 of the men's 3,000 meter will be a dog fight according to Tyson as 10 of the 17 runners are wearing Gonzaga jerseys, including redshirt junior Andrew Walker, junior Tate Kelly and sophomore Nate Gesell.
"It's going to be a Bulldog fight, and they'll be some other runners from around the United States in there to make it a very interesting race," Tyson said. "It would not surprise me that we have more than one guy finish under 8:30. It wouldn't surprise me that we might even dip under 8:20 if everything goes right. It's going to be exciting."
On the women's side, Ley is hoping the Bulldogs can gain more experience from the meet.
"We're taking ladies who can get the most benefit out of this meet. It's really a last chance situation where it's going to be pretty hot time-wise up front," Ley said.
Section 1 of the women's 3,000 meter will feature nine of 13 Bulldogs racing. Ley also entered redshirt sophomore Emily Thomas in Section 2 of the women's 3,000 meter, the only Zag in the heat. Thomas first broke the school record with a mark of 10:02.36 in the indoor season-opener at the UW Preview Jan. 14, but Drake shattered Thomas' record with a time of 9:46.32 at the UW Invitational Jan. 28.
"We'll see if she can steal back that school record from Lindsey. I think she's really got a shot at doing that. She's looked really good over the last couple of weeks and I think that is going to be fun to watch her kind of being in a heat where she's gets pulled instead of pushed," Ley said
Sophomore Catherine Theobald and freshman Megan Batty are the only Zags racing in the women's mile run. Both Tyson and Ley have been impressed with Theobald's performance this season. At the Vandal Collegiate, Theobald entered in two races and she finished second in the women's 800 meter with a personal-best 2:19.96 and she finished third in 5:12.56 in the women's mile.
"Catherine looked great at Idaho and her workouts have looked really good so I'm hoping to see some drops for her. Megan's coming off a couple years of niggling injuries and she's starting to show her confidence again and that is cool to see," Ley said.
Tyson said he and his squads have really benefited from the indoor season as it comes to an end Saturday.
"What it's done is it really forces one to continually be engaged at the high level. It's exciting. I think it's important to do that," Tyson said. "We don't put a lot of pressure on the athletes for indoors because we don't have an indoor conference championship. It's not our goal at this present time to run really, really fast indoor to qualify for the national championships indoors. If we have somebody that is good enough we'll consider it, don't get me wrong. But it's really all about getting the rust off the legs and giving the athletes an opportunity to test where their fitness level is and be engaged. Patty loves it, I love it and (volunteer assistant coach) Rich Nelson loves it. We love putting the jersey on and giving these student-athletes another opportunity to experience high end D-I running. The indoor season gives them more experiences that will pay off in the outdoor season."
One of the challenges the Bulldogs had during the inaugural indoor season was training under winter climate. Tyson said his teams conquered it and it will benefit them as the outdoor season begins with the Dusty Lane Open at the Community College of Spokane March 17.
"I surveyed the athletes afterwards and they said they have never been in anything like it," Tyson said. "It was the most incredible experience they have ever faced in their life. What it did was it gave the athletes an opportunity to do something and conquer something. Whenever there is a bad weather competition outdoors later this spring, they will be able to go into their memory bank and remember they conquered nature. They proven they can conquer this epic, incredible blizzard weather."
