Women?s Track and Field Set to Host Alabama Relays
3/15/2006 12:00:00 AM
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| Beth Mallory |
With a successful indoor season that saw the Alabama women’s track and field team ranked in the top 20 throughout, the Crimson Tide moves to the outdoor season Thursday with the opening of the 2006 Alabama Relays at the Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium.
The Tide will be looking bounce back after finishing second a year ago.
“I think we will win the meet and it is our goal to win the meet,” Alabama head coach Sandy Fowler said. “I know the girls have been talking. This is their meet, their home. They want to win. It’s nice that this meet is scored because you cannot just rely on one person. It has to be a team effort.”
With eight different relays, the competition allows Alabama’s athletes to showcase their talent in events that they may not be accustomed to running.
“The athletes will get to run some events that they might not be used to and it kind of allows everyone to see how talented the runners are,” Fowler said. “It can be used as a training tool as well. You can increase the volume the athletes run in a weekend. They definitely are tired at the end of the meet.”
The outdoor season represents both a new beginning and a continuation to Fowler.
“It’s kind of a combination of a fresh start because you have some athletes who didn’t compete indoors and a continuation for the athletes who did participate indoors,” Fowler said. “All the runners are looking forward to being outdoors. You run on a 400-meter flat track. It’s a big difference for them going from indoors where all the tracks are different.”
Alabama’s sprinters will have to make adjustments as well, running longer races than they had to in the indoor season.
“There has to be an adjustment, not only because the races are longer, but the strategy is different too,” Fowler said. “They’ve been training for it but it will take them a couple of races to get in the rhythm of the 100-meter races instead of the 60-meter races.”
A positive aspect of the outdoor season as opposed to the indoor season that both Fowler and the athletes like is that when the athletes hit a qualifying mark, they know they are in the regional meet whereas with indoors, the athletes most likely have to keep improving their mark to guarantee their spot in the NCAAs.
“The athletes look at it as ??when I make the mark, it’s done, I know I am going,’” Fowler said. “They don’t have to chase the marks anymore once they earn the regional qualifier. I’d like to see our athletes qualify for regionals early so that we can have a couple of good training weeks. I can see 80 percent of the team getting there.”
The Alabama Relays run from Thursday through Sunday. The women’s heptathlon and the men’s decathlon get things under way on Thursday morning at 9:30 and conclude Friday. A full slate of events is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday beginning at 8:00 a.m. both days.
