The Temple women’s track team is anticipating a strong showing for the season and is hoping to take home the coveted Atlantic 10 Conference Indoor Championship.
In the early season, Temple had some noteworthy performances from their core sprinters.
In eight events, the Owls have at least two sprinters in the top 10 in the conference. In six of those events, the owls have at least one athlete in the top three.
The hurdles have emerged as the top event for the team with the top two runners in the conference’ sophomore Rachel Clinton and freshman Jessica Dunston.
‘Rachel is the premiere hurdler'” Coach George Phillips said.
Last season’ Clinton qualified for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association championships with a time of 8:17.
The second best time belonged to Dunston at 8:29.
Temple has also had strong performances from two other athletes in the hurdles event’ sophomores Jaweia Campbell and Dreamer Patterson.
Patterson was one of the top two runners in the hurdles last year and has continued to perform well’ clocking an 8.44 this season.
Campbell is the most improved athlete on the team.
‘Jaweia is a great improvement’ she’s come up to be the third fastest hurdler and she ran 8.41′ which dropped her time down from 8.54′” Phillips said.
‘The girls are on pace’ hopefully’ to win the Conference Championship.”
In the A-10 Championship’ the first six places in an event score points and the team with the most points win the meet.
Due to a lack of facilities and the absence of a cross-country team’ the Owls are unable to compete in five events.
‘We don’t have a pole vaulter’ we’re not allowed to throw the weight.
We don’t have a cross country team’ so therefore we don’t have a 5’000 [meter]’ 10’000 [meter] or a mile'” Phillips said.
Other teams’ like the University of Rhode Island’ that can field complete teams in these other events’ have the opportunity to score easy points’ giving a team like Temple an early disadvantage.
In order to win it all’ Temple must look to place at least three athletes in the top five places in their strongest events’ like the hurdles’ the dashes and the
400 meters.
They must also look to place at least one runner in the top five in the longer events such as the 500 meter’ the 800 meter’ and the 1000 meter.
If they can do that’ the Owls may pull off a huge upset.
Looking toward the future’ Phillips expressed his desire to bring in more depth to his team.
‘We’re talking about adding a girl’s cross country team and we’re trying to do the field events.
We’re able to do the shot put and hopefully the other field events are coming’ we’ll see what happens'” he said. ‘Cross country may be a long process.
The pole vault and the weight throw will definitely be difficult. I hope it happens in my lifetime.”
Saudia Mitchell can be reached at Saudrae@hotmail.com
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