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Track team members aim for a big finish
Track team members aim for a big finish
By JON MOFFETT
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
The Youngstown State University track team includes (standing, from left) Tarelle Irwin, Michael Davis, Clarence Howell and Adam Kagarise. Kneeling are Kenya Garner, Ta’Nesha Anderson, Symona Gregory, Nichole Pachol and Alexis Washington.
Lindsey Blase can’t tell you what her times were from last year’s Horizon League track meet. But she can tell you how she finished.
That’s because, Blase said, it doesn’t matter when you finish, just how you finish.
“Nobody goes to conference to get a personal record,” Blase said.
Blase, 22, and the rest of the Youngstown State track team is busy preparing for this weekend’s Horizon League meet in Lisle, Ill.
The women will defend their back-to-back meet championships in 2009 and 2008. The men finished second both years.
Aaron Merrill, 22 and a senior thrower, said previous results from this year and seasons past don’t matter.
“We basically go in with a clean slate, and this is our one opportunity to go in as a team and compete against most of these schools we haven’t seen since the indoor conference meet,” he said.
Said Blase, “It’s kind of the only meet that matters. Every other meet is kind of just preparing us for this one.”
But the Penguins understand the pressure on them.
“It’s definitely in the back of our minds that we are the defending champs,” said senior jumper Alisha Anthony.
What’s in the forefront of their minds is the competition. Blase said familiar foes in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will be joined this year by a tough Butler distance squad.
“Butler came out of nowhere this year,” Blase said. “They were just really strong in their recruiting this year, and they got some good girls through that.”
She added, “I think we’re probably more like the underdog for this meet. I think we’re sitting in maybe second place going in.”
But Blase said she welcomes the competition, which she said will bring out the best in everyone.
“Last year in the 5K race, I got second place,” she said. “The girl who got first was really far in front of me, and the girl who got third was nowhere close to me. I think this year it’ll be a little bit more packed and a little bit more competitive.”
Anthony, along with fianc Adam Kagarise, a sprinter, said team unity is more important at the conference meet than at any other time.
“It’s an individual sport all year round, but when the conference meet comes around, you have everybody cheering for you,” Kagarise said. “It’s a completely different dynamic altogether.”
Kagarise said the team often splits into its different groups — sprinters, distance runners, jumpers and throwers — for meets throughout the year. But the events come together as a school team at the Horizon League meet.
“Everybody really does come together,” he said. “I mean, I’ll run my race and find out someone is throwing in the finals for the shot put, and I’ll run over and cheer for them before running my next race.”
Said Anthony, “My favorite thing about conferences is that we come together as a whole team. At conferences, everybody is there cheering for everybody else.”
And while the overall goals is a title for both men and women, each said they have individual goals.
Merrill, who has the outdoor record for the shot put with a distance of 57-feet-7, said he hopes to hit 60 feet.
“I’ve done it before in competition, but it was on a foul. So it’s like I’m chasing a ghost, and I haven’t caught it yet.”
Blase, who will run the 10K race for the first time all year, just hopes for a good finish.
Anthony, dealing with a back injury, hopes to improve on her personal-best 19-feet-9 in the long jump.
“My goal this year is to get 20 feet, so we’ll see,” she said. “My goal in high school was to get 19 feet, and then I changed that to 20 feet in college. I’m close, but we’ll see.”
Kagarise’s goal is a bit different. He hopes to capture his first individual win of his career. And he hopes to beat a personal rival in doing so.
“I’ve never won an individual event, and I’ve gotten second place more times than I can tell you,” he said. “And it’s always been the same kid, [Milwaukee’s] Tyler Bucholz.”
Tyler Bucholz is also a senior sprinter.
“He runs the exact same races as me, and it seems like if I run a personal best, he runs a personal best minus a tenth of a second,” Kagarise said. “Up until last year, I never really got along with him. I didn’t even know him, but I didn’t like him.”
It wasn’t until last year, when Kagarise tore his quadricep, that he learned how important friendly rivalries were.
“I was ranked No. 1 going into all of my races that year,” Kagarise said. “He told me regardless how the day went I was the true champion.”
Merrill said he has no personal rivals and “It’s pretty much just me against myself.” But he does have a foe he’d like to outrun.
Graduation.
“In years past, you kind of take it for granted, knowing you have another year coming, or can always do better,” he said.
“But knowing that this is your final meet, you kind of want to kind of go out and leave your footprint at the last championship meet of your collegiate career.”