KSU’s Director of Track and Field Andy Eggerth’s attitude toward the upcoming season can be likened to a pole vault. Eggerth, who was named the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Coach of the Year after claiming his fifth A-Sun title with the men’s team last year, thinks his team can raise the bar even higher.
He said he hopes for the men’s and women’s team to finish top 50 in the nation in 2014.
“I think success is a relative thing,” Eggerth, who’s entering his fourth year with the Owls after coaching at Kansas State, said. “You know, it’s all about perception. We’re constantly looking at the national and international level, and in my personal opinion we’re not nearly as successful as we need to be yet, so to me it’s easy to stay motivated because we’ve got much higher goals than what we’ve achieved this far.” One of the more obvious rungs to fit a foot on would be for the women’s team to claim an A-Sun championship. The women’s team finished as runner up to Jacksonville in last year’s outdoor championships, despite having three All- Americans on the 4×100 team.
Junior sprinter Kentrell White, who advanced to the NCAA Championships last season, sees bringing her team to the top of the conference more important than individual accolades.
“It would mean a lot to be the first (women’s) team to win an Atlantic Sun Championship with the track and field team here,” White said. We’ve been working really hard and we have a lot of really good incoming freshmen that have just jumped on board.”
The men will return 13 all-conference performers, including All-American jumper Andre Dorsey. The men’s team won both the indoor and outdoor conference titles last season, but have still stayed hungry and have put in extra work in the offseason.
“I’ve been real excited with the offseason. The kids have been training very hard,” Eggerth said. “We permit them to do some optional practice and had about 90 percent of the athletes show up to do some voluntary work. They’re very focused and trying to win championships.”
The track and field teams will open their seasons at the Blazer Invitational, hosted by Alabama-Birmingham, on Friday and Saturday. They will compete in just three invitationals before the A-Sun Indoor Championships on Feb. 21 and 22.
