News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
World News
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Classifieds
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Sports
Track & field gets geared up for Open
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Having high expectations for a team is always a given when going into a season. Keeping those expectations however, can be hard, but if SCSU track and field head coach Seth Mischke and his cast of student athletes are any indication, expectations are easy to keep.
"We've battled early, and we are looking forward to the next couple of weeks," Mischke said. "Everyone knows what they need to do to be as competitive as possible for the upcoming weeks."
Last weekend at the North Dakota State University Open in Fargo, N.D., the SCSU women captured two first place finishes and the men also took home a first place victory.
Senior Amy Dombrovski, a Holdingford native, won the 500-meter dash in 1:19.37 and first-year Molly Hansen (Eagan) won the 1000-meter run in a time of 3:19.99 to lead the Huskies. Senior Stacy Baumbach also turned in a solid performance placing fourth in the high jump with a score of five feet, two-and-a-half inches.
Mischke stated that he felt Baumbach has a really good chance of being successful from the season carrying over into conference meets. Baumbach herself said she's doing well after overcoming an injury earlier in the season and said that her coaches and teammates are helping her through.
"I've had a lot of encouragement," she said. "The injury kind of set me back a few weekends, but I'm coming back and I think I'll be in my prime about the time conference rolls around."
On the men's side, freshman Lance Johnson ran to first in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:05.59. In addition, Adam Lee (Hutchinson) placed fourth in the pole vault with a vault of 15'5," which is an NCAA provisional mark. Senior Shane Hoag (Atwater) is also a big standout for the Huskies. Hoag placed third in the triple jump with a mark of 46' 7". Freshman Jared Lazer placed two spots behind with a score of 44' 3 1/5".
As mentioned earlier, Dombrovski is turning in great performances for the women's side of the SCSU team.
In early February, she participated in the Husky Open and placed second in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:19.57. Mischke said that she has had to overcome some injuries and also said they had her run cross country, something in which she liked. He went on to say he's expecting some good things in the coming weeks.
"I think we are seeing some early benefits from (the cross country running)," Mischke said. "We look for her to be a bright spot at the conference (meet). She's one of the healthier ones and she's got some high expectations for herself too. She'll do well."
Hansen also stepped up for SCSU in their indoor season. Mischke said that he's happy with her performance thus far stating that it's always a tough transition from high school to the collegiate level.
"I think she's handling it well," he said. "We're just working on her becoming faster, because that's track and field's main goal is to either go further or go faster."
Mischke said he felt that if they can help Hansen overcome an injury that she suffered, she'll be a tough athlete to compete against.
As far as the men's team goes, Hoag looks to be the leading candidate to land in first place. Hoag won the long jump with a mark of 21'5" in the Husky Open two weekends ago. He finished fifth in the 60-meter dash in a time of 7.17. Mischke had good things to say about Hoag and said he was happy he was over the injuries that plagued him last year.
"He's come on strong here," Mischke said. "He's our fastest (competitor) as far as the 60-meters goes. And his triple jump is starting to take shape. He's always been a good jumper, he's strong, wiry and a solid competitor. He's gonna mix it up every chance he gets."
Hoag, for one, feels he's competing better than he did last year after overcoming an ankle injury.
"This year, I think the key thing was I was hitting the weights a lot," Hoag said. "(SCSU assistant coach) Colleen (Mischke) said 'it's all mental, just go out and try not to think about it. They said just give it your best effort and that's what I'm doing."
Another big standout for the Huskies during the indoor season has been Lazer. In the Cobbleer pentathlon hosted by Concordia College, he was the overall winner with a score of 3,244. He placed first in the long jump (20' 9 3/4") and high jump with a jump of 5' 8 3/4".
"He's another one of those kids that we're very pleased with," Mischke said. "I think we have a good base there. He's definitely going to be one of those along with Lance (Johnson) that are going to do well. They're both good kids, they work their tails off and that's the way to get better and make us better."
Saturday, the Huskies host their own tournament, the SCSU Open. Mischke is looking to get out some of the kinks in his athlete's individual events and get his team a few races under their belts.
"We just want to fine tune some things," Mischke said. "We just want to go out there, feel fresh, feel good and come away with some decent times. We want to look good going into the conference meet, because if you don't, you're gonna get lit up."
Privacy Policy
Network Advertising
Article Syndication
