I have mixed feelings about the MIAC Indoor Championship meet. Losing by two points is difficult to accept. Bethel had a good weekend and we knew they would be difficult to beat. They have a few great athletes and will do well this week at the National Championships. Once we get past the disappointment of not defending last year’s championship, we can focus on the upsides of our team heading into the outdoor season.
In true Saint John’s fashion, we will be a stronger team if it ever stops snowing. Our indoor conference performance was impacted by injuries, conservative coaching decisions, and a mediocre performance overall by the team. Hopefully we will be at full strength during the outdoor season and some of our injured athletes will be ready to return. As a coaching team, we made some decisions to be conservative with our athletes at Conferences and limited some of our athletes who have a history of injuries. As usual, the additional outdoor events like steeplechase and javelin will help the team’s performance. Regardless, it will be a close outdoor championship since St. Olaf will have a good team led by a strong group of decathletes.
Before we get too caught up in the outdoor season preparation, we still have Joe Charbonneau (JR, Richmond, WI) competing in the pole vault on Friday, March 10th at the Indoor NCAA Championships. Joe has improved tremendously in vault and cleared 16ft. -1in. at the MIAC Championships to win and qualify for Nationals. Joe continues the string of successful vaulters for SJU. The vault squad had a dominating performance at conference by placing 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th. Beyond those that scored, the vault squad qualified seven of the eighteen spots at conference. Vault coach John Pollack does a great job with the guys and I am amazed at the improvement we see in his group.
We are excited for Joe as he embarks on his first trip to Nationals and are looking forward to hearing the stories of John and Joe on the Road.
Follow along to the Division IIII National Meet here:
See you outdoors!
Jeremy
BTW: Our triple jumper, Elijah Wade, has been working on an Instagram page with some fantastic videos of the team. Check it out here: sjutrackandfield on Instagram