Sophomore Kennedy Berkley jumps over hurdles in a cold morning practice at the Marshall Gage Track.
With the spring semester comes track and field season, and the Racers have already begun practicing for their first meet.
Head Coach Jenny Severns has been making the team formally practice together for about a week.
Severns said she was not allowed to make practice mandatory over Winter Break, which means the first few weeks of practice can be more difficult than usual for the girls.
“Even if people are training on their own at home, it’s definitely a lot different when you get together with the team,” Severns said. “People get pretty sore and pretty tired.”
The Racers’ first competition this season is the Illini Classic, a two-day indoor meet at the University of Illinois. Severns said there is sure to be tough competition at the meet.
Although she said she would love for the Racers to pull off a win, that is not her main concern. Severns said she simply wants the Racers to do the best they can.
“There’s not a big expectation to beat a lot of teams,” she said. “The most important thing is just to see where we’re at so we can see what we need to do to get to where we want to be for the conference championship.”
Not everyone on the team is going to the first meet at Illinois. One of the team members staying behind is senior sprinter and school record holder Sharda Bettis, who is this year’s team leader.
Despite Bettis’ absence, Severns said she believes the team has several members who can take on the leadership role.
“We have enough people with a lot of experience that hopefully they will all rally together instead of just one person taking the reigns,” she said.
After leaving last season with a second-place title at the OVC Outdoor Championships, as well as being named OVC Female Coach of the Year, Severns and the Racers are ready to meet bigger goals this season.
“We’re always trying to win the OVC,” Severns said. “That’s the goal.”
With the team being more mature and experienced, Severns hopes the team will improve a great deal from last season.
“We have a really good team,” Severns said. “I think we can do some big things and surprise some people. As long as everyone keeps progressing, we have a really good shot at that.”
The Racers will compete at 4 p.m. today and 9 a.m. Saturday at the Illini Classic in Urbana-Champaign, Ill.
Story by Taylor Crum, Staff writer