Inside or outside, up and down hills or on a cushy track, the running men and women of the Otterbein track and field program just can't seem to slow down. The winter snow (or lack thereof) may keep the fleet of foot off the streets until spring, but to catch all the track action just head to the Clements Center.
The season opener is set for Saturday, Jan. 12 at Capital starting at 3 p.m. It's a pretty safe bet that the team is ready to stomp on Cap like any good Otterbeiner would, assistant coach John Lintz said the meet is really just a good way to feel out the season.
"The meet on Saturday is our opening meet, but it's not a really big meet; we're just going to train through it. We're just gonna try and see where we are," he said.
Head coach Doug Welsh aslo feels Saturday's meet will help the team test the waters.
"This is our first week of practice, so we are trying to see where we are in our conditioning and attempting to learn solid practice habits and routines," he said.
Looking at the season schedule, it seems that this February brings with it the track invasion. Three big meets will be held in the Clements center: the Greater Columbus championship, the All-Ohio championship and finally the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) championship.
The first championship will be held on Feb. 9 at noon. According to Lintz, if things go as planned, it will be one meet you don't want to miss. The men's team has never lost this invitational and the women are running against another team that received recognition last season: Ohio Wesleyan.
"Our women's team and Ohio Wesleyan were nationally ranked, so that ought to be a good battle," Lintz said.
Facing an unbeaten men's team and a strong, competitive women's team (they took both the indoor and outdoor track championship last year), will be Kenyon, Muskingum, Capital, Dennison and Ohio Wesleyan.
"Our goal is always to win the conference championship. If we can stay healthy we'll be right up there again this year," said Lintz.
Welsh views the conference contenders as strong competitors for the team.
"The conference will be as strong and balanced as it usually is. Teams will be very competitive at Baldwin Wallace, Ohio Northern, Heidelberg, and Mt. Union, with every school having quality athletes to contend for top finishes," he saidd.
This week is the first week of practice for the team, so the upcoming Capital game should prove to be a good gauge of where the Cardinal team is and where they need to go in order to contend for the conference title.
