The Plattsburgh State track and field team started off to a successful start for the spring outdoor season in the Saints Ice Breaker Open hosted by St. Lawrence University.
For the women’s team, junior runner Elisabeth Plympton came in first for the women’s 100-meter dash with the time of 12.62.
For the 200-meter dash, Plympton and sophomore Janyll Barber finished with the time of 26.30 and 27.27, respectively.
Barber came in first for both the 400-meter dash and long jump with 1:01.99 and 5.20m. Junior Brianna Coon won the event, women’s shot put, with a score of 11.84 meters.
For the men’s team, sophomore Andrew Horan came in first for the 1500-meter run with the time of 4:10.67 and second for the 800-meter run with the time of 2:00.74. The team of sophomore Luke Groves, sophomore Arthur Horan, senior Brian Fabian and freshman Tyler Martin came in first for the 4×400 meter relay with the time of 3:37.73.
Head coach Nick Jones said he was pleased with the team’s performance and thinks that the team rested up well and still did their training throughout spring break.
“They are already better than they were at the end of indoors so that is very promising,” Jones said.
Horan was satisfied with how he performed last Saturday, but he still thinks that he can perform better. He said that as this is the fresh start for the outdoor season, it is more important to go out there to gain more confidence.
“Doing the fast race is when it really comes down to the pain, whether you will go for it or not, if you are confident about yourself,” Horan said.
Training for each athlete is not the same but overall they are not going quite as fast as they can because of the weather and are working on endurance. Jones said that as they get deeper in the season, they will freshen up more and do shorter but faster workouts.
Horan explained that his workout follows more of a longer training plan and it varies throughout the week, which involves sprints, 800 meters run, 400 repeats and more.
“Right now I am feeling a bit banged up, so I am trying to stay on the grass to decrease impact, usually we are on the roads,” Horan said.
Jones is looking into improving upon the marks the team has already achieved. The meet last week was a starting point to see how the team is performing and to improve on that performance and hopefully achieving their personal best.
“The goal is always to prepare for our conference championship and do as well as we can in the championship as a team,” Jones said.
Horan is training to perform his best for the upcoming meets, ultimately he wants to go to the SUNYAC championship and the regional championship.
“The men’s team is moving in the right direction, and we are a smaller team so that is a little hard sometimes but now we are looking good,” Horan said.
Jones said that compared to the start of the indoor season, the team is doing a lot better now. He also said that the athletes are fitter now than when they first started the season, which may help them perform better.
“We want to get the starting spot like we did the past weekend and we want to see improvements,” Jones said. “That’s all we’re looking for — improvements.”
