Women finish 5th in harsh weather conditions
The women’s track & field team came back from spring break and after a week of individual workouts, returned to normal team practice. The team’s first week back included several warmer, sunny days that allowed the team to practice outside.
On March 19, the Yellow Jackets competed in the first meet of the outdoor season. The team traveled to Muskingum University to compete in the Muskie Duals. Waynesburg finished fifth out of nine teams.
However, on Saturday, the team competed in cold, wet weather at the meet.
The meet was a long, cold and windy day that started with snow at the beginning of the meet that turned to rain by the end of the it. While the weather was tough on the athletes, head coach Jason Falvo said it would help them in the long run, as the preparation they did in the cold will help them in the future.
“The weather was awful,” said Falvo. “Obviously being that cold and that wet it affects the body.”
Falvo kept an eye on the weather leading into the meet and told the women to expect for cold weather, but he didn’t know for sure until arriving in Muskingum. With the cold weather present, Muskingum offered its gym for the opposing teams to keep warm in.
Falvo strongly encouraged the team to stay inside the gym and warm up until it was almost time for an event, and then to go outside and keep moving to stay warm.
Sophomore sprinter Marla Holland did as Falvo requested and warmed up for her events in the gym, then layered up in three pairs of pants before heading to the track and finishing her warm up.
Holland started the Yellow Jacket’s day off by qualifying in the 100-meter dash. In the preliminaries, Holland ran a personal best in the event.
When it came time for the finals later on in the day, she ran a new personal best in the event, which resulted in a fourth-place finish, improving one spot form her qualifying spot.
Holland agreed with Falvo, saying the weather was tough to run in.
“It made it tough to stay positive and hopeful,” said Holland. “But overall I think the team made the best of it overall.”
Junior Katie Latimer finished second in the 1500-meter run. Latimer, who missed the 2015 outdoor season due to an injury, finished the race with a new personal best in the event, beating her time from freshman year by 10 seconds.
Latimer was followed by freshman Teghan Simonton and junior Emily Latimer, respectively.
Simonton also finished in eighth in the 800-meter run and her teammates Katie Latimer, Angie Marchetti, Elinore Loch and Emily Latimer finished in the nine, 10, 11 and 12 spots, respectively.
Holland said having Katie Latimer during the indoor season and the first meet of the outdoor season has made a significant impact.
“I think she has made a huge contribution to the team overall,” said Holland. “I think [overall] we can only go up from here, especially just getting into the outdoor season.”
Falvo said the “wet and cold are a bad combination.”
At the end of the day, Falvo said overall the team did their best competing in the weather.
“I think our [women] did a good job of pushing through [the weather] but it definitely was a factor, that’s for sure,” said Falvo.