I want to emphasize what I mentioned in last week’s post, we never know what will happen during the first outdoor meet of the year. Will it be inside, outside, or cancelled? The weather forecast looked promising with a predicted sun, low wind and a high temperature in the upper 40’s. Wow, did that change in a hurry.
Saturday evening, we learned the forecast changed to a cloudy day with a high temperature in the mid-30’s and chance of flurries. Coaches were texting to determine if we were canceling the meet and one team even backed out. Joe and I were determined to host the meet after the long week of preparation. It’s too bad the weather prediction was right on.
Teams showed up and were in good spirits. I think everyone was happy to be competing after the long break between the indoor and outdoor seasons. Surprisingly, there were few complaints; mostly laughing at how ridiculous the weather turned out. Sprint times were slow as the 100 meter dash was run into the cold wind. Many of the sprinter didn’t return to the track for the 200 later in the day as I thought two races in the bitter cold would probably anger the hamstring gods. We still managed a couple impressive performances out of that group with sophomores David Russell and Tyler Johnson running good times despite the weather.
Our main reason to continue with the meet was because the throwers and distance runners can still compete well in the cold. The throwers need opportunities to compete and were tired of throwing into a tarp in the fieldhouse. The upperclassmen made use of the opportunity with several personal records especially in hammer throw. The freshmen, Eli Mollet and Cameron Murphy, looked good for their first time throwing hammer and discus. They will have some big throws this year.
I enjoyed seeing the distance runners get an early race. They also looked good with a nice run from Kevin Lamb in the 1500 and Noah Webb not far behind in his first track race of the year after injuries during the indoor season. By the time the distance guys made it to the 5k, the flurries were coming down hard and James Mathison squinted his way to a win.
Overall, I’m glad we hosted the meet. We got the first competition out of the way in a low-key, small meet. Now we can focus on this week’s meet at Hamline which has over fifteen teams. If track fans are up for seventeen heats of the 200, you’ll know where to find us.