With the start of the Ivy League season less than two weeks away, the women's track and field team continued its transition from indoors to outdoors Saturday at the Rutgers Invitational. Well, at least some of the team did.
Fresh off a trip to Florida over spring break to compete in the Florida Invitational, head coach Peter Farrell decided a little recuperation over the weekend was better than competition. Consequently, he sent less than half of his team to Rutgers.
"We rested a lot of people after the spring break trip," Farrell said. "I only sent those people competing in events that needed the outdoor exposure."
Among those he chose to send to Rutgers was senior hurdler Nicole Harrison. After seeing his star run the 55-meter hurdles for the past several months indoors fast enough to qualify for the NCAAs, Farrell wanted Harrison to adapt to the event's outdoor counterpart, the 110-meter hurdles. Not only is the distance doubled in the outdoor event, but so too is the number of hurdles, which is increased from five to 10.
Lone ranger
While the rest of the team will be participating in the Sam Howell Memorial Invitational this Saturday at home at the newly completed Weaver Stadium, Harrison will be traveling to the University of Texas for the Texas Relays. The competition she will face in Texas is another factor in Farrell's decision to send her to Rutgers.
"Nicole needed some competition to get ready for this weekend," Farrell said.
Harrison didn't exactly find the stiff competition her coach was looking for at Rutgers. She blew away the field in a time of 13.2 seconds, defeating the second-place finisher by 1.1 seconds.
Another athlete that needed the outdoor exposure was junior hurdler Aiyanna Burton, who was victorious in the 400-meter hurdles. She tuned up for the season with a winning time of 63.7 seconds, 1.3 seconds ahead of the rest of the heat.
"It was nice, but it was just an opening meet, and I didn't run as fast as I could have," Burton said. "I needed to get my feet wet in the 400 since it is not an event in the indoor season."
In the field
A pleasant surprise for Farrell was the strong showing by freshman triple jumper Sharon Jordan. She won her event with a distance of 11.68 meters, defeating senior teammate Lisa Hochreither, who jumped 10.83 meters.
"Sharon jumped real well for a freshman at this time of the year," Farrell said. "I'm real impressed with her score. She's developing into one of the top freshmen in the league."
The Sam Howell is the last preparatory invitational of the season, with team competition beginning the following weekend at Penn. The Tigers have developed enough early in the season to please Farrell.
"The spring trip did a lot to pull this team together," Farrell said. "I'm happy with our progress and preparation for the most important part of the year, which is the end of the spring season."
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