Bulldogs Begin Indoor Track Seaon Saturday at Washington
1/12/2013 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - If you've ever been around Gonzaga University cross country and track head coach Pat Tyson you know he's never going to be accused of standing in one place so long he kills the grass beneath him.
And he doesn't want his student-athletes standing around doing the same thing over and over during the indoor track season. Thus, his approach is perhaps a little different than most when it comes to the indoor track season which begins Saturday at the University of Washington Indoor Preview at Dempsey Indoor facility.
"The approach of indoor is to break up the monotony of winter training, to get a test effort every two weeks. There's no team score. The meets are test efforts to see where the fitness level is and use that to establish our workouts that get us to peak outdoors. If one of our kids qualifies for the NCAA, then let's go. Our goal is for them to get the rust off their legs and get them ready to run outdoors," Tyson said.
And he'll juggle things up when it comes to the events individuals are entered in.
"I like to mix things up. I think these guys that are 5K and 10K guys need to run a mile once in awhile. It's good. Variety is the spice of life. The faster you can run a mile the faster you can run a 5K or a 10K," he theorized. "Tate Kelly, a senior, has the goal of qualifying for the regional in outdoor in longer distances. He needs to run a mile and be under 4:10. In fact, our goal is to get everybody under 4:10 - our top guns in cross country for example. Colin O'Neil, Robert Walgren, Brent Felnagle and so forth," Tyson said of the blueprint he's drawn.
Assistant coach Patty Ley takes much the same approach with the women.
"It's developmental season as much as anything else at this point. We're probably still one or two years away from that athlete where we say we're really going to work to get you qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. There are a few schools nationally who focus on that, especially in the Midwest where they have the indoor facilities. We want to develop as racers. We want to move them forward training wise, fitness wise, ability wise to hit those bigger marks outdoors," Ley said.
Dempsey Indoor is the "fastest indoor track in the world. It's 300 meters and it has a bounce to it. If you get caught up in this bounce it's amazing," Tyson said.
According to Tyson there will be plenty of participants in attendance with their sights set on qualifying for the NCAA Indoor.
"Everybody around the United States knows the power of going here to qualify for the NCAAs. We're going to see teams from all over the U.S. coming out here. Virginia has their team coming, Duke has their team coming and you can go on-and-on."
And there will be pros competing, as well.
Former University of Oregon runner Galen Rupp placed second in the 10,000 meters in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He is also the current American record holder in the 10,000 with a time of 26:48.00.
"He's going to run a test effort. I don't know if it's a 3K or a mile, but I'm guessing a mile," according to Tyson.
Matt Centrowitz Jr., son of the two-time Olympian, will be on hand. He finished fourth in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in the 1,500 meters. He missed the bronze medal by .04 seconds finishing with a time of 3:35.17.
"There will be some high energy events going on Saturday and we're going to be just a part of that. That's such great motivation for our athletes to watch a Galen and watch a Centrowitz. It's like going to church. When you come back from UW it pumps you up," the ever enthusiastic Tyson said.
Tyson said his troops are ready to go.
"Tate is ready to go. Walgren is looking really good. He holds our mile and 3K records. Let's see how freshman Conor McCandless does coming off mono which kept him out of the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championship last fall. He's the greatest runner ever recruited to this school. Andy Phillips is our 800 meter runner in 1:53.11 for second all-time. It will be fun to watch our middle distance runners," Tyson said.
Three top runners will not compete.
"Willie Milam will not run this weekend. He is still having some health issues. We'll shut him down until he's 100 percent. Felnagle has a slight Achilles issue. You don't mess with an Achilles so we won't have him this weekend. Chris Boyle has been nursing a pulled stomach muscle. It's very painful and takes a long time to heal. He can go on runs, he just can't do anything intense so he's out, too," Tyson said.
Emily Thomas qualified for the regional in the 10,000 meters last spring for the Bulldog women and that effort should inspire others, according to Ley.
"Emily took that next step of greater volume, greater intensity and she's been able to put in consistent training for two years without injury. It's come together for her time wise and I think the other athletes now realize it is a process. It would be great if it pops the first year, and lots of good things happen the first year. But they know realize two years down the road things will be great as long as they can be consistent and do things to keep themselves healthy and train every day, then they'll move forward," Ley said of others following in Thomas' footsteps.
Ley said the freshmen will not compete as much during the indoor campaign.
"Looking at the freshmen class we know none of them have ever done this before, never lined up in the winter with a uniform on. It's a different expectation for them. We'll keep them on the low end; maybe the freshmen will only run half the meets. I want to keep them fresh," Ley said. "One of the things I found last year was those freshmen who went through the entire year were tired at the end. Come summer when they needed to go out and kind of prep they were unable to do that because they were tired. We want to keep the freshmen hungry."
Ley is looking for some breakout performances indoors that will hopefully carry over into the outdoor season.
Catherine Theobald is one Ley looks for more improvement and good things from.
"She ran a 4:31 for 1,500 meters at the West Coast Invitational last spring. If she can cut a little more off that she could qualify for regional," Ley said. "Lauren Bergam had a great cross country season, had huge improvements and has a chance to qualify in the steeplechase in the spring. She's a great athlete and I think that's a perfect event for her with the combination of speed and strength."
Amelia Evans and Zoe Urcadez are a couple of freshmen who could surprise a bit, said Ley.
"Amelia is looking forward to running the 10K and you don't see that from freshmen very often. Based on what she did in cross country she's not that far from where Emily was at the same stage last year in cross country. Zoe is going to be a fun surprise. I don't know if she's regional ready but I think she and Taylor Cherry are going to be some fun freshmen to watch in the spring. I think Zoe will surprise some people in the winter, too," Ley predicted.
One veteran who won't see much of the indoor track is Lindsey Drake.
"Lindsey has a little tendinitis. We are going to de-emphasize indoor. We found with structural issues with her hips and legs the tighter turns tend to beat her up a little more," Ley said. "We're talking about training her off the track a little more this year, more like a cross country training rather than a track training. We want to keep her on softer surfaces and longer periods of time before she turns to keep her healthy. We'll let her run, but we won't run her on the tighter indoor tracks."
Saturday's meet is the first of seven on the indoor docket leading up to the NCAA Indoor Championship. Following Saturday's met the next action for the Bulldogs will be Jan. 19 at the Idaho Collegiate in Moscow, Idaho.
