Men’s Track and Field Looks Forward to Conference Meet

On Feb. 27, the Oredigger Men’s Indoor Track & Field team claimed their first ever RMAC Conference title. That momentum was maintained throughout the outdoor track season, with impressive performances by senior Marty Andrie, breaking his own school record with a 5k time of 13:44.38, and junior Logan Winfield, completing a 1500 meter run in 3:54.52.

“He is improving a lot from last year which is always great. The rest of the team looks good as well. We have a lot of personal records and school records even. It’s a good year,” Winfield said, when asked about the stellar performance on the track this year.

“The team as a whole did pretty well indoor. We won the RMAC conference, which is pretty competitive compared to some of the other conferences,” Winfield said, touching on how the Orediggers did at the conference meet. This success during the indoor conference meet will surely roll into continued success during the outdoor conference meet.

“We are going to have to have a tight pack to come out on top of Adams State,” said freshman Daniel Stehling on the outdoor conference meet.

Stehling oriented this comment specifically towards the distance events, referencing the success the Men’s Cross Country team had this fall, winning the DII National Championship.

“We won by having a really tight pack,” Stehling said. “Our top five guys were within 30 seconds of each other.”

The team is continuously working on sticking together and pushing each other during training in hopes that keeping the team tight will help to maintain an unprecedented level of success.

“Although for outdoor track we are a lot more split up because there are so many different races”, Stehling commented. “We still train in groups. Coach [Chris Siemers] sets our paces, and we work together to hit those paces.”

With so many reps and sets with tough paces to hit, it is important for the team to maintain a fun and encouraging atmosphere. This is where Winfield’s leadership skills really get a chance to shine.

“I like to make jokes a lot,” Winfield commented with a grin. “I can lead sometimes, but I probably don’t lead too much. I just hang with the team and carry in a positive energy and keep it light and fun.”

Despite not having a direct leadership position on the team, Winfield keeps the atmosphere lighthearted and exciting despite grueling repeats and tempo runs.

Some of the difficult workouts that the 1500 meter run team does are 400 repeats, 600 repeats, and 800 repeats—and even 200 repeats sometimes. Every couple weeks, the team also performs a tempo run to maintain cardio workouts.

“We are looking good. I’m excited to see what we can do,” said Winfield, on the team’s chances of performing well at the outdoor conference meet.