Senior Brian Fabian and junior Victoria Whimple headlined the Plattsburgh State track and field team this week. Each were awarded by the State University of New York Athletic Conference as Track Athlete of the Week for the men’s and women’s side, respectively.
The Cardinals had a lot of good performances in the Saints Ice Broken Open hosted by Saint Lawrence University on April 6, head coach Nick Jones said.
The team broke a total of 55 personal records and achieved 70 SUNYAC qualifying marks as well as 13 Atlantic region qualifying marks over the past two weeks.
“That is pretty good for the first two meets,” Jones said, “We are pretty happy about that. We got some good momentum.”
The men’s team came in first for the 4 x 100 meters and 4 x 800-meter, with the time of 44.78 and 8:11.20 respectively. The teams are senior Luke Roderka, freshman Connor O’Neal, freshman Michael Meddings and Fabian for the 4 x 100-meter relay. Meanwhile, Fabian, freshman Tyler Martin, sophomore Luke Groves and senior Andrew Horan make up the 4x 800-meter relay.
Fabian also came in first for the 200-meter dash with the time of 22.88. Freshman Vincent Perna won the long jump with the distance of 6.19m.
For the women’s team, Whimple came in first for the triple jump with a distance of 11.29m.
Plympton had a strong showing by winning the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash with the time of 12.72 and 25.57 respectively.
The team of junior Taylor Canet, freshman Aislyn McDonough, freshman Faith Haley and junior Marissa Jones came in first for the 4×800-meter relay with the time of 10:07.05.
Sophomore Janyll Barber came in first for the long jump with a result of 5.12m. Junior Brianna Coon won the shot put event with 12.51m.
The team has been splitting its time training between indoors and outdoors due to the weather. Nick Jones said that the best weather the team had was during the latest two meets.
“It has taken a decent amount of planning, but we have gotten some solid work in, and it shows in our performances,” Nick Jones said.
Nick Jones also said that diet is a part of the athletes’ responsibility. He said that it is important to be cautious about their diet and with a good diet, they will be more consistent with their workouts. He also said that guidelines are provided for the athletes but it is up to the athletes to decide their own diet. However, Nick Jones said that if the athletes need help with that, they are always there to provide the help needed.
“Our days mostly follow themes of the week, and we try to stick to that kind of cycle of training plans,” Nick Jones said.
On Mondays, the team will usually do short and fast pace training. Throwers might have explosive training routines occasionally.
Tuesday is the hardest workout day of the week for sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. Wednesday is a recovery day as the athletes went hard on Tuesday, but is also a harder workout day for the distance runners to prepare for the race’s pace.
For sprinters, Thursday is about relays, speed and tempo work.
Fridays are a pre-meet for the athletes where they will be warming up for the latest competition and some light practice “to prime the body and the nervous system for the meet,” Nick Jones said,
Nick Jones said the training has been about tempo work and building endurance for the past weeks as the weather is still cool. He does not want the athletes getting hurt in the cool weather. He is hoping the weather gets warmer so they can touch up on speed and the team will be resting up this week as the championship approaches.
“Keeping people healthy will be key to our successes as we get to conferences and beyond, “ Nick Jones said.
