Now that spring sports have been approved by the SUNYAC, the Oswego State track and field season will look different in two ways. The high-rate of turnover among the program and the presentation of a smaller team due to opt-outs for the season. 

One athlete has already chosen this route, according to coach Jacob Smith, who is entering his second season as coach of the team. The coach who’s job at Oswego State goes the full academic calendar during a non-COVID-19 season, due to his head coaching role with the cross country team and the indoor and outdoor portions of the track and field season, looks forward to seeing athletes participating in their respective events. 

“We still have a good core of people that are really passionate about this and want the opportunity to compete and to practice,” Smith said. “I’d be excited if we could offer them that opportunity.” 

The 2019-20 Oswego State indoor track and field season was highlighted by the outstanding performances of seniors Catarina Burke and Sarah Yensan. Both received an invitation to participate in the NCAA Div. III National Championships in March before COVID-19 canceled the event. Yensan finished with the sixth best long jump mark in the country last year, with a mark of 5.80 meters. Burke was ranked 16th with a high jump 1.68 meters.  

Kevin Mitchell who is currently a junior was the only other Oswego State athlete who posted a top 10 performance at the regional meet that preceded the national championship. 

For returning athletes a modified season might be easier to adjust to than the new athletes on the team. Smith provided the advice he would give to freshmen athletes who are potentially going to debut for the Lakers this spring. 

“The key thing to try to emphasize with them is this is obviously very different than what they would normally experience,” Smith said. “Let’s really focus on enjoying this and get what we can out of it because it is a great opportunity in which we have not had in a long time.” 

All returning athletes and new athletes, transfer or high school, are in the same boat going into a potential spring season. It will be a year at least since they were able to compete in any track and field events. If athletes’ high schools did not participate in an indoor track season, it might be a year and a half or two years since they last saw competitive action, depending on if they ran cross country or not. 

Junior thrower Lindsay Fluman from Pittsford will be called upon to be one of the steady influences when the season occurs. Her 2020 season was highlighted by nine top 10 performances in events last indoor season, besting her total of six during her freshman year. Fluman shares Smith’s enthusiasm to be able to compete again. 

“I am very excited about…it because throwing has been something very important to me since high school,” Fluman said. “It was one of the few sports I have made good friends from, [allowing me to] connect to the sport and people.” 

Fluman does have the lingering thought of the risk of competing during COVID-19 in the back of her mind. A thought that has caused thousands of athletes around America to decide to opt-out of their prospective seasons across all divisions. She has trust in the SUNYAC to have a safe plan for the spring season. 

“I am sure that the SUNYAC will make sure that everything is safe,” Fluman said. 

That trust is built by the impressive numbers that SUNY schools have been able to deliver in respect to the number of tests available for students and the frequency of those. SUNY has conducted over a million tests since the start of the fall semester. That is more tests than Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming have been able to individually perform since the start of the pandemic. The current 14-day rolling average of positivity rate for SUNY stands at 0.52%, well below community spread levels seen across each region of New York. 

Fluman wants to get back to throwing again and believes that any athlete joining the team needs to find balance between fear and normality again, a task that every American has been trying to do for themselves the past 11 months. 

“I would tell them to find as happy a medium as they can between being safe with COVID and trying to find some normalcy in track,” Fluman said. “At least for me, track determines my whole schedule. Once I have it again I’ll be back in my routine.” 

Smith shared what a season would look like around the SUNYAC this spring, based on his meetings with other coaches and the Commissioner of the SUNYAC Tom Di Camillo. Still, a lot is unknown as to the aesthetics of a track and field event during COVID-19. 

“There are very few details we have been given so far,” Smith said. “I anticipate we are not going to be able to compete in as many meets as we normally would just because there isn’t going to be as many available.” 

Photo provided by Oswego State Athletics