As the weather warms up and the snow melts, the MSU track and field team prepares for their only home meet of the season this weekend at Ralph Young Field.
“Our expectations are to see our team engaged,” head coach Walt Drenth said. “Whatever event they’re in, we want them all in. It’s pretty simple. It’s our second meet outdoors. We’ll have a lot more people competing than we did last weekend, so we want to see the people that are competing make a little progress from the week before.”
At the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C., last weekend, MSU took home a 2nd place finish in the women’s 1600 meter sprint medley as well as a 3rd place finish in the men’s 4-x-800 meter relay.
Sophomore Tori Franklin also won the women’s triple jump with a distance of 13.07 meters, and senior Beth Rohl won the discus.
Drenth said the benefit of coming home this weekend will be the opportunity to compete against old rivals and reacquaint with former friends, as well as having the advantage of sleeping their own beds.
“Everyone looks forward for the opportunity to compete in front of people that know them,” he said. “That’s important, and we normally get a pretty good turnout. There are a lot of in-state and local teams that come. All those things are part of what makes it special.”
In the first outdoor meet of the season in North Carolina, senior Keenan Michael finished 3rd in the 400-meter hurdles and 19th in the 400-meter.
He said he wants to show the MSU community what the team has been doing since September, and he feels more comfortable running at home than on the road.
“It’s a lot of fun to run at the home meet,” Michael said. “It’s a familiar track to us, it’s a familiar environment. It’s just fun having family and friends come out and support too. Sleeping in your own bed and not having to wake up early for planes or bus rides, it’s not as big a toll on your body as having to travel someplace else.”
He said everybody understands what they did well and not so well at the first meet, so they’ve spent this week analyzing their performance and building from there to get better as a team.
After completing the indoor season at the NCAA Championships in early March, Drenth said it takes time to transition to go outdoors.
He said the biggest thing to overcome is the mental aspect — although the distances run are the same, they feel different.
“The length of the track, as absurd as it sounds, we’re racing the same distances but you get twice as much feedback from your coaches indoors, the straightaways are half the length,” he said. “Even though you run two laps for 400 meters indoor and one outdoor, those straightaways feel a little longer. It’s just kind of adjusting to the rhythms and adjusting to outdoors is a little bit unique and it takes awhile to get in sync.”
He said sightlines are the challenge when moving outside for the field events because everything is much more condensed indoors.
MSU will host their only outdoor meet beginning at 2 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Ralph Young Field for the running events, and Munn Field and Jenison Field House for the field events.
Sophomore Jaelynn Pryor has high expectations for herself and her team this weekend and for the rest of the season.
“We have a big group of ladies and men,” Pryor said. “(We have a) strong team with depth. Just look for big things from Michigan State outdoor.”
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