Nine teams are set to come to Moscow Saturday for the Idaho Collegiate I and the Idaho Open I indoor track meets. The meets were originally planned to run on separate days but now they will run as one meet on Saturday. The Idaho Collegiate I is the competitive college meet while the Idaho Open I is an open meet that will include some high school students.
Some of the teams joining the Vandals include Washington State, Whitworth, Spokane Community College, Lewis and Clark State College, Western Washington, Central Washington and Gonzaga.
“The team looks great,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “Everyone did a great job over the break and came back in really good shape.”
It is still early in the season, so many teams, including the Vandals, will not compete with their full squads. Most of the distance runners for the Vandals are not competing for the second straight meet as they continue to train through the early portion of the season.
“If we continue to see good marks like we did last week, even though at this point in the year putting in a lot of volume and training hard, then that’s a good sign for our future,” Idaho coach Julie Taylor said.
Last week, Idaho athletes broke school and meet records in their season opener at WSU.
“I feel like we’re a little bit ahead of where we were last year, which is great,” Taylor said. “I think it will be a true test once we get through this weekend and the next to kind of see more how we are as a team.”
The first couple of meets of the season are the best chances for freshmen and newcomers to prove themselves to coaches and teammates and test the waters of Division I collegiate competition.
“Ian Middleton, Blake Gerling and Nathan Stark all really did well (last) weekend,” Taylor said. “Also Drew Thompson … he had a very good start. We had a number of kids that came out for their first weekend.”
Competing at home early in the season offers several advantages to the Vandals. They don’t have to spend time away from training and classes, which is a huge advantage early in the semester. Several athletes also like the comfort of competing in a familiar environment.
“This is a very comfortable place for us,” senior jumper Jason Lorentz said. “We train here year-round. We’ve got a phenomenal indoor facility. Hands down there’s a comfort level that you experience here.”
The Vandals are still holding some of their athletes for one more meet but the athletes are eager to get started and continue their success from last year, when the men won the WAC Indoor Championship.
“There’s definitely work to do but the boys are looking to go back and win another conference championship and I know the women are looking to do a little better than we did last season, especially with a better team than we had last season,” junior hurdler Cait Rowland said. “Everyone is looking pretty optimistic and definitively putting in a lot of hard work for it.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]