Ben Prescott, sports editor
The Berry College Track and Field team has broken 11 records in the first four meets of the indoor season. Most recently, freshman thrower Mason Robinson set a school record in the Weight Throw event at the Bulldog Open meet at Samford University on Feb. 12. Robinson’s final 15.16m throw broke the indoor record with its distance.
At the same meet, freshman Connor Cole broke his own school record in the 60m Hurdles, completing the race in 8.61s. In the Joe LaRocca in Salem, Va. on Feb. 5, senior Grace Schumacher broke the 200m dash record with a 26.61s finish.
When considering the broken records thus far, Head Coach Luke Syverson has not been surprised by the athletes’ performances.
“None of [the broken records] were earth-shattering or ones that came out of nowhere, all were attainable given the individuals that we have on the team,” Syverson said.
According to Syverson, training has not been any different for this season. These performances come from the training that started as soon as the athletes stepped on campus as freshmen.
“Our training plan stays fairly consistent,” Syverson said. “Our kids are still, for the most part, training year round. Even on their own in the summer and in the fall.”
Workouts are planned several months in advance, but are flexible depending on athletes’ needs.
“When we plan out a year, we almost plan out the workouts in some regard for the entire year. Not just for what’s happening tomorrow,” Syverson said. “We move those around based on how kids are feeling, mental health, weather and all those other variables.”
For the rest of the season, Syverson expects his athletes to break more records for the remainder of the season. He said most of the records that are up for grabs are the men’s field events, with senior Jared Ogle having his sight set on the hammer throw record. Freshman, Devan McEwen, has a chance to break the record in the javelin throw considering his personal best is further than the Berry school record. Robinson has the chance to break the outdoor shot put record. Both men’s and women’s 4x400m records are attainable for the athletes.
Syverson anticipates the outdoor season to be stronger since they will have more athletes available to compete. Because there is not an indoor equivalent to the javelin throw, one of the team’s best events, those throwers have not been able to compete this season. Once the outdoor season starts on March 5, the javelin throwers will be back in the fold. The distance runners will be back for the outdoor season after shifting their training focus to speed work.
Looking at the men’s outdoor season, Syverson is excited for the possibilities that will come on the conference level.
“This is definitely, especially on the men’s side, the strongest we’ve been,” Syverson said. “I think we finished both third for men and women last year at conference. I think this is probably the most legitimate chance we have of winning conference this year.”
Despite the smaller size of the women’s team, Syverson says that the women should have a strong conference finish.
“I still think we’ll finish top three on the women’s side,” Syverson said. “We returned pretty much most of our women’s team from last year.”
Even though Syverson expects his team to break records each year, he also recognizes that some of the records are harder to obtain. These records come from the 1970s and 1980s, including a 10.4s 100m dash by Ronald Albert in 1979 and a Nationals long jump of 7.21m by Dwight Henderson. On the women’s side, Michelle Tuggle set the high jump record in 1984 with a mark of 1.78m. Michelle Abernathy also set multiple strong distance records in the 3000m (10:01.54s), 5000m (17:10.61s) and 10000m (35:58.55s).
Preparation is an important part to beat these records, but Syverson has faith in things besides the training method.
“I’m pretty confident in their training and what we’re doing,” Syverson said. “But more than the training, I believe in them and their potential. Training always changes, you still have to have people who buy into it and believe they can actually do it.”