By Brandon Ladd
The indoor portions of the Oswego State men’s and women’s track and field seasons are coming to an end in the coming weeks but it has been a season dazzled with personal bests and standout performances.
Feb. 18 is the last indoor regular season meet of the season for the teams, before the SUNYAC Championships the following weekend. The season will close for all March 5 at the Atlantic Region Championship, if no individuals qualify for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. With that said, there have been standout performances that have individuals on both teams in position to compete at Regionals.
The team has been described as “close-knit” by themselves and have been helped by interim head track and field coach Juan Martinez to work as a group. Sophomore sprinter and hurdler Aidan Harrington also credits assistant coach Curtis Merrick for helping push the team and himself further.
“Coach Merrick has helped us by giving us the drive to go out and compete our hardest every day,” Harrington said. “He is a great motivator and has made practices fun.”
Junior sprinter Ashleigh Lacy shared similar sentiments to Harrington about Merrick, elaborating further on how practices have helped the individual athletes.
“Even with our setbacks we have amazing coaches that support and believe in us,” Lacy said. “Merrick has given us the drive and motivation to put in our best work even with our setbacks. He believes in us when no one else has. Curtis is great about modifying practices to our needs and helping us in every aspect.”
Lacy made headlines in recent weeks by breaking the SUNY Oswego record in the women’s 60-meter dash at the Rochester Institute of Technology meet on Feb. 11. Lacy ran a time of 8.08 seconds in the preliminary round to best the previous record of 8.10 by Deb Richards from 2003. However, was not the end of her meet as she delivered a 27.01 second run in the 200-meter dash to finish second of 41 runners. Lacy did not think this was possible for herself before the meet and now believes more is possible.
“I am working towards the regional times for the 200 but with two meets left I don’t have any doubts,” Lacy said. “At this meet, I broke the Oswego State School record for the 60-meter dash. This is something I did not think was possible. I also had a season personal record in the 200 [meter] which is one step closer to regionals.”
Harrington thought back to his SUNY Brockport meet earlier this season as his favorite, citing personal bests in each event that day. Harrington has been just as stellar recently, as he got first place at the R.I.T. meet in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.76 seconds. He also took second in the 200-meter dash. Adding to an impressive season, which he is happy about.
“This season has been great so far,” Harrington said. “At the moment, I am very close to Regionals and I’ve recorded a personal best in every event I’ve done.”
On the throwing end of things, Alandra Jones continued her impressive freshman campaign at the R.I.T. meet with a personal-best throw of 11.96 meters in the shot put, finishing fourth at the meet. She has also qualified for Regionals.
The last indoor regular season meet for the men’s and women’s teams is at Nazareth College on Feb. 18 at 3:30 p.m. The meet will be one last chance to qualify for the SUNYAC Championships and the second to last chance for individuals to qualify for the Atlantic Region Championship.
Photos provided by Oswego State Athletics
