Men’s Indoor Track and Field Team Wins RMAC

The men’s indoor track and field team won their first ever RMAC championship, in big part thanks to a 1-2-3 finish by the heptathlon athletes. RMAC Freshman of the Year, Tristan Sisneros, and the rest of the men’s track team prepared for this meet all season and capitalized on all of their hard work this past weekend.

Sisneros competes in the “multi” event, which is the heptathlon event for indoor track and field. The heptathlon consists of seven events, including pole vault, high jump, and shot put.

“My season is going good. It’s really fun right now. It’s the first indoor season for me, so I’m getting used to everything” Sisneros shared.

While Sisneros is new to the heptathlon this year, he has experience in all of the events except for pole vault.

“My weakest event is definitely pole vault. Training for pole vault is definitely a slow process, and I just got thrown into it. But I’m getting there,” Sisneros commented.

To train for so many different events requires quite a bit of work. The heptathlon athletes practice two to three events per day along with conditioning. While there are only three men heptathlon athletes, the inter-team competition is intense.

“Connor McClean, Austin Smith, and I are close to each other in a lot of events. I excel in some and they excel in others, so the points are always really close,” Sisneros shared. “I am better at high jump, but McClean is better in pole vault so we push ourselves to get better marks in those events. It works out—we are always pushing each other to get better.”

This teamwork and shared motivation no doubt helps the heptathlon athletes excel in such a grueling sport. Sisneros commented that despite the team’s close-knit and supporting environment, it is hard for the heptathlon athletes to perform consistently.

“A lot of us can throw down pretty good marks, but it happens on different weekends. If we all performed up to our limits on the same weekend we would score really well,” Sisneros predicted.

This prediction came true at the RMAC conference meet with McLean taking 1^st place, followed by Smith in 2^nd, and Sisneros coming in 3^rd. In the individual competitions, McLean won the pole vault and Sisneros won the 60 meter hurdles event.

Despite all the struggles of such a draining event, Sisneros is still enjoying it and excited to continue to improve.

“It’s a learning experience,” Sisneros commented. “You have to learn so many things to get up to where you want to be. It’s a process.”

We wish Sisneros and the rest of the track and field team the best of luck as they wrap up their indoor season and prepare for outdoor track and field.