As head cross country and track coach Kelsey Bruce and her athletes begin their outdoor season in track, they hope to improve on their indoor season. Bruce and her runners discussed their success at the Lone Star Conference Indoor Championships in February. 

The Mustangs entered the Mosier Indoor Facility in Norman, Oklahoma with eight runners and looked to finish the indoor season on a high point and claim the conference title.

“It’s fun to see the girls rise to the competition” Bruce said.

The Mustangs scored a total of 24 points in the competition to finish in seventh place.

The Mustangs reached personal bests and ran some of the fastest times for the program in nearly a decade.

“I think that’s the cool thing about track is like you can see your progress.  I think that’s the cool thing about our sport that maybe not other sports have the luxury of. This group that we have this year. It’s been a group that just really wants to be better and they work well together to be better,” Bruce said.

The Mustangs displayed their cohesiveness at the indoor championships as their distance medley relay team won bronze. The team turned in a time of 12:20.28, the third fastest time in program history. 

Nursing freshman Jaycee Lyons, one of the four runners in the distance medley relay team, led the Mustangs in scoring for the event. She scored 6.5 points of the 24 points and ran a couple of her personal best, in her conference indoor championship debut. 

“Starting off was a little rocky and then I worked my way through the training and practices and meets,” Lyons said, when discussing her performance at the event.

Lyons ran her personal best time of 5:07.03 in the 1-mile, which is the fastest time for the Mustangs at the event since 2016. She capped off another personal best with a time of 10:29.27, the fastest time for a Mustang since 2014. Lyons said that her personal best times are progress toward what she wants to see in her results in May.

“I’m trying to build a base. I’m trying to build my endurance, my speed and practices do get hard but you grow from those,” Lyons said.

Another highlight for the Mustangs at the conference indoor championships was kinesiology junior Daiza Jones becoming the first runner in Midwestern State history to qualify for the 400-meter dash finals. Jones credits her success at the event to letting go of her  “fear and anxiety” when running.

“I’m a very anxious runner and a very doubtful runner and I think finally everything just came together. I was able to approach my race and just let go like whatever you run, that’s what God is calling you to run. I think just being able to let go and not allow that fear and anxiety to control me so much. I think that’s why I was able to run my fastest time.”

Both Lyons and Jones expressed their appreciation for their teammates with their success.

“We win as a team. We’re the Mustang Track. It’s not Daiza Track, this person track. We all win together. Being able to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and just being able to push each other so that as a program we can grow,” Jones said.

As the transition to the outdoor season gets started for Bruce and her runners, the Mustangs look to build on their success from the conference indoor championships.

“We took a little bit of a break. A couple of days, which is a break for us,” Bruce said, adding, “We kinda transition our type of training for a little while and then we just are starting to race for outdoors. Indoors gives us a mark of where we at and what we need to do to peak in May.”

With the transition for spring, Lyons and Jones already have goals in their mind.

“I want to accomplish hopefully another personal best or school record,” said Lyons, continuing, “Just scoring points at conference and hopefully getting us closer to Nationals.”

Jones mentioned that she wants to approach the outdoor season with “a lot more confidence.”

“You’re capable of great things. You’re capable of running fast so don’t let the fear consume you no more,” Jones said.