Ohio is heading to Huntington, West Virginia, this weekend for the third time this season.
Coming off of a solid meet at Youngstown State last weekend, Ohio will head to Huntington, West Virginia, this weekend for the third time this season.
The Bobcats will be competing in the Marshall Invitational, two weeks after competing in the Thundering Herd Invitational. Ohio also faced Marshall for a dual meet to start the season in December.
Coach Clay Calkins exclaimed with a laugh that the reason Ohio has been traveling to Marshall so often is because its facility is close.
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“Marshall has brought in great Division I competition to the meet in January and the meet in February here,” Calkins continued. “The first meet in December is always a tune-up meet for us, so to have a close 300-meter track is to our benefit to utilize.”
Last weekend Ohio had 20 top ten finishes at the Youngstown State National Invitational.
“It’s always good to win events,” Calkins said. “Youngstown finished ahead of us, but we beat most of the other Division I teams that were there, so it was a strong team performance and at this time of year, that’s important.”
He was satisfied with the team’s performance in jumps, distance and hurdles at Youngstown State and believes the meet was positive overall.
But Calkins also recognizes that the team must work on sprint performances, especially with the Mid-Atlantic Conference Indoor Championships occurring at the end of the month.
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“We’ve still got some work to do in the sprints…in that area we definitely need some improvement there,” Calkins said. “We’ve got a ways to go with some of the athletes. They need to keep things in perspective and apply themselves here [in practice].”
Calkins commends junior •Tessa Weigand, a distance runner from Akron who has performed consistently throughout the season. She also has the potential to compete in the mile at the MAC Championships. Her best mile time so far this season was 5:15.23 in the Tom Wright Classic at Bowling Green last month.
Looking towards the MAC meet, Calkins mentions that the Bobcats will have to face some “stiff competition” including teams like Akron and Kent State.
“We need to get people qualified for the MAC meet first and foremost,” Calkins said.
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