By Heidi Carmack
The BYU women”s track and field team heads to Boise, Idaho, this weekend for the Boise State Hampton Inn and Suites Classic on Saturday, (Jan. 20, 2007).
“We will have some very good people competing,” said women”s head track and field coach Craig Poole. “But we”re leaving a lot of good people home, too, because of little injuries from the first meet.”
Taking 46 athletes to the meet, Poole said he expects to do well, although he anticipates that the athletes will be tired from working hard this week and coming off their first meet of the season.
“In this meet the quality of the competition goes up,” Poole said. “Stanford will bring a lot of good people. Boise and Cal have some good people.”
Other teams attending the meet include Eastern Oregon, Northwest Nazarene, California Saint Dominguez Hills and University of Nevada, as well as some club teams.
Since the last fairly small home meet, a few adjustments in practice were made to prepare for this weekend.
“The changes that we end up making are the emphasis on certain techniques or certain conditions,” Poole said. “We try to address those with individuals so that it will produce results, maybe not this week, but the next and for the season.”
The women”s distance program, headed up by coach Patrick Shane, is competing in Boise as the opener for the season. About 14 distance runners will compete in this meet, and the rest of the team will be brought next week.
“We”re just looking forward to getting the season started,” Shane said. “I think the track and field team will be great this year, and the distance program hopes to contribute in a big way to that.”
A few distance runners to notice this weekend are sophomore Heidi Houle, junior Michelle Lindsay-Turner, junior Julie Meads and freshman Jenna Lowder.
“The 800 [meter] could be very competitive with this group of young women in it,” said Shane, who has coached five Olympians and 27 All-Americans.
“I”m looking forward to seeing how some of our people are going to open up this year,” Shane said.
