Track teams prepare for meet
Some plan to use time to recoup

By Sam Eaton
Skiff Staff

As the men’s and women’s track teams prepare for their fourth meet of the outdoor season, head coach Monte Stratton said the top sprinters and relay teams need some time off.

Six days ago at the Texas Relays in Austin, senior Kim Collins ran the fastest 100-meter dash in the world so far this year, and the 4x100-meter relay team ran the second-fastest NCAA time this season, trailing only the time they set a week earlier at the UTA Invitational.

Photo by Tim Cox - Skiff Staff After the track team competed at the UTA Invitational and the Texas Relays in back-to-back weekends, head coach Monte Stratton said some sprinters need a break.

But, several of the top athletes intend to get some rest as the core of the team competes at the Texas A&M Invitational Saturday in College Station.

Stratton said the team will look to take it easy at the invitational.

“We’re not going to push it or run our high-profile sprinters,” Stratton said. “Collins won’t be running, and it will be up to the other top sprinters if they want to run.”

Collins was named Western Athletic Conference Track Athlete of the Week, Monday.

The men’s team, which held the No. 2 spot in the Trackwire Top 25 poll heading into the Texas Relays, is now tied once again with Louisiana State for the top position. The Frogs were tied with LSU in the Trackwire Preseason Poll, March 21. The Frogs were originally scheduled to compete at the John Jacobs Invitational in Norman, Okla., this weekend, but Stratton and the Frogs chose to compete in College Station instead.

“We felt that the weather would be better for us and for our sprinters,” Stratton said.

Senior Jason Howard, who captured a personal-best jump of 7.83 meters in the long jump at the Texas Relays, said the team will do its best despite the amount of competition at the invitational.

“The A&M meet coming up won’t have as much competition as the Texas Relays, but the quality of a meet doesn’t affect our individual effort,” Howard said. “We just want to do our best to improve.”

Going into the invitational, Stratton said that the team is experiencing some typical minor injuries but hasn’t suffered anything devastating so far this year.

Senior sprinter Roy Williams and junior mid-distance runner Perhona Tomlin have been dealing with recent hamstring pulls. Williams was a member of the winning sprint-medley relay, and Tomlin helped the women’s distance-medley relay to a fourth-place finish Friday in Austin.

Sam Eaton
s.m.eaton@student.tcu.edu