A different kind of
week
For
a track coach you get used to a routine even though every week is a little
different. Practice Monday through
Thursday or Friday then compete on the weekend, throw in some recruiting on
random days and rest on Sunday and do it all over again for 6 months or so from
January until June.
Last
week was a little different as we had a meet on Wednesday and (gasp!) we had a
weekend off!
Emporia State Midweek
For
the last few years we’ve decided to take a weekend off and make the short trip
to Emporia for a low-key Wednesday night meet, mostly for kids who didn’t go
out to Sacramento earlier in the outdoor season. Being one of the only D1 teams at the meet,
many of our “developing” kids get to run to the front and gain some confidence
from winning races and working on things they don’t get to do at more high
profile meets. I’ve seen some struggling
kids turn around their seasons at the Emporia Midweek and end up being
significant contributors a few weeks later at the MVC Championships.
What do track coaches
do with an off weekend?
I
will admit, the thought of an off weekend sounded really nice last week. I’ve been hitting it hard for several weeks
with tough travel and meet hosting. So
what did I do? Mostly play golf.
In
fact, not that anybody cares, but I shot a very pleasing 78 Saturday. I won’t talk much about the 95 I shot on
Sunday but all in all it was a relaxing weekend and got me rejuvenated and
ready for the final weeks of the outdoor season.
Sunflower State rivalry renewed!
We
are heading to Lawrence Saturday to take on the Jayhawks. A late addition to the meet this week is
Kansas State (they were going to host a meet but cancelled it and are now
coming over). Besides our Kansas rivals,
we will also compete against Air Force, Oral Roberts and UMKC. It should be a great scored meet – one that
we are trying to win.
Last
year we had a similar meet at K-St with KU and Air Force that we swept on both
sides. Indoor we had a Kansas Triangular
where K-St won and we beat KU.
A
meet like this gets our kids a little more fired up and ready to compete as we
like to show we don’t take a back seat to our in-state rivals. For anyone that lives in Kansas and likes
track you should make sure to get to Lawrence Saturday for a great meet!
How does the MVC
look?
With
less than three weeks until the MVC Outdoor Championships at Illinois State,
the race for the trophies are becoming a little clearer. And the good news is Wichita State should be
in the hunt for both titles.
On
the women’s side it once again looks like a three-way battle with Indiana State
and Southern Illinois. This weekend will
be a big indicator for us in terms of who will make our conference team and how
ready we are. I think we’re looking good
and our ladies have a deep and powerful team that the other squads will need to
be ready for. Indiana State and Southern
Illinois have great athletes and coaches too and I’m sure they’ll be ready for
the challenge. It should be fun!
For
the men we also appear to be a slight favorite on paper with SIU, Indiana State
and Loyola chasing us. We have a couple
injuries on the men’s side but I feel like we are coming around now and look
hungry to get our first men’s title since 2010.
The MVC is a really tough league and winning championships aren’t easy. Those teams will throw their best at us and
we will need to be ready!
Next week
Hopefully
I’ll be back to recap a great meet at KU as well as getting ready to host our
final home meet of the year the following week, the Shocker Open. Maybe I’ll even chat about a couple new
movies I’ve seen recently as well!
Until
then thanks for reading -- Go Shocks!!!
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