New program helps prepare runners for upcoming outdoor track season
While most students are busy trying to get their last few minutes of sleep at 6 a.m., the 25 students on the women’s cross country team are wide-awake, getting in their first workout of the day.
This season has brought on a new challenge for the team, as it is their first season to compete in the Lone Star Conference’s indoor track and field division.
“We started out as a cross-country only program – that was it,” head coach Koby Styles said. “We competed in cross-country in the fall, and then that spring semester we sat around doing nothing. We were basically twiddling our thumbs while everyone we were trying to compete against in the conference, and now nationally, were continuing to train and get better.”
Success Yields New Program
Styles said the success of the cross-country program since its reinstitution in 2005 has allowed for the addition of both track and field programs.
The extra competitions allow the Lady Mustangs to compete year-round, but also to improve in the areas needed for cross-country. Yet he said they only compete in distance running in track events.
Styles said, “We want to keep the focus on the endurance. Individually, track is not much of a team sport as cross-country is, but the main goal for the program is cross-country.”
Benefits other than Running
Styles said indoor track also serves as a motivational tool to push the girls to success.
“It keeps them motivated and wanting to better themselves,” Styles said. “As runners, there’s always a goal and a time for each event and you want to better that. They’re constantly chasing a time.”
Adding the track and field program has benefited the team in more than a training and competitive aspect. Styles said the programs have heavily helped recruitment compared to just having a cross-country program.
“Recruiting-wise, this helps so much, because we’re able to recruit a much better athlete,” Styles said. “We lost a lot of recruits for being just cross-country only. Adding (track and field) has taken our program way beyond what it was a few years ago.”
Explaining the differences
Indoor track differs from outdoor track not only in venue, but also in size. While a traditional outdoor track measures 400 meters around, indoor tracks are half the size at 200 meters.
While some of the team members ran indoor track in high school, Styles said some members had never seen an indoor track.
Junior mathematics major Cara Mack said the hardest transition from outdoor to indoor track was the pace of the races.
“I had to get used to the fast-pace of (the sport),” Mack said. “(The track is) a shorter distance, so there’s more turns.”
Much like Styles, the runners said they believe the addition of indoor track benefits help them stay in shape between seasons.
“It’s a good transition from cross-country to outdoor track,” sophomore pre-medicine major Michelle Krezonoski said. “Normally we go from November to March just working out, so (indoor) keeps us in race shape.”
Michelle’s twin sister, Kim Krezonoski, also runs for the Lady Mustangs, and said the thing she likes most about indoor track and field is the team aspect of the sport compared to cross-country.
“I just love indoor,” Krezonoski said. “We get to travel as a team, and a lot of us get to go to all the meets, which is really nice for support. It feels more like a team environment when your whole team is there. Cross-country is nice, but you can only take a certain amount of people.”
Preparation for Outdoor
Although the Lady Mustangs have been competitive in their first two indoor meets at Texas Tech and Central Oklahoma, junior sociology major Ashley Flores said the real task lies ahead at this year’s inaugural indoor track and field championships on Feb. 23 and 24 and ultimately the upcoming outdoor track and field season.
“We’re definitely faster than we were this time last year and we’re getting better each time we run,” Flores said. “We’ve been doing really well, and we’re mainly just working through this season to get ready for outdoor season.”
Styles agrees.
“I’m very, very pleased with the way they’re progressing,” he said. “I think we’re going to have an even better outdoor season because I’m seeing the strength they’re getting from doing indoor track.”