Coach Al Schmidt and the Mississippi State women’s track and field team will begin the 2007 season with a road trip to the East CoastThe team will journey to Clemson, S.C., this weekend to compete in the two-day Clemson Invitational.
The indoor track event will kick off Friday afternoon and will feature events such as the shot put throw, the 60-meter dash and the half-mile, mile and two-mile long races.
Schmidt will be taking close to 20 girls with him to compete in the meet.
He says his team is particularly looking forward to facing some of its SEC rivals.
Alabama, Georgia and Auburn will be participating in the Invite, as well as competing against teams in the ACC.
“This is an early season meet,” Schmidt said. “Our main priority is looking to see where the girls are after Christmas break.”
Schmidt points out that there are several glaring differences between indoor and outdoor track events.
He says he is particularly glad the spring season starts off with the indoor events.
“Times are slower in indoor track,” Schmidt said. “We also run about half the distance that we do in outdoor track. We’ve been training hard these past couple of weeks. We’re just trying to fight the cold right now.”
Schmidt counts sophomore Michelle Corrigan and junior Annie Falor as posting some of the best times in the distance races.
“We’re also lucky to have Nicola Wilson, who is one of the best shot-putters in the SEC,” Schmidt said.
In addition to the weekend meet, Schmidt and his team are preparing now for the SEC Indoor Track Championships, which will begin on Feb. 23 in Lexington, Ky.
“We enjoy competing at these meets because they help prepare us for the SEC championships,” Schmidt said. “But we can’t sell our season out just trying to win a meet. Our goal is to do well at the SEC meet.”
The women’s team begins the year with many new recruits.
They have a lot of young competitors in distance, jumps, throws and especially sprints, making their first appearances.
“These meets will be a good chance for us to see what our young sprinters have got,” Schmidt said. “We can really get a good idea of what to expect out of them for the season.”
Schmidt says his team is glad to have had the break but are ready to get back into the swing of competing.
“We were really glad to have this extra time before having a meet,” Schmidt said. “We needed the time to get back into the swing of things.”
The men’s track team does not compete in the indoor track season.
Their spring track season will begin in March with the beginning of the outdoor track season.
Following the Clemson Invitational, the women’s track team will travel to Baton Rouge to compete in the Louisiana State University Invitational on Friday.