Steven Watkins (Staff Writer)
Spring is coming, and the KSU track and field teams are ready to bring the heat.
Following an indoor season that saw both teams compete for conference championships with the men’s team notching their third consecutive Atlantic Sun title as well as the highest NCAA Division I ranking achieved by any KSU team since 2005, director of track and field Andy Eggerth and his Owls are ready to carry that momentum into the outdoor season.
“Not to sound arrogant, but the goals are to go on and do things higher nationally,” Eggerth said. “It becomes an expectation more than a goal.”
The Owls began their outdoor season March 21st in Tempe, Ariz. at the ASU Baldy Castillo Invitational. For Eggerth, one of the main focuses in the early days of spring will be “setting up the championships.”
“We want them competing against those people and beating those people on a regular basis so that when we get to nationals it’s not just ‘Ok we got there,’” Eggerth said. “Let’s go and do something. Let’s beat them and let’s score.”
Talk of competing on a national level has been a recurring theme for the men’s team this season, which makes sense given a 20-spot jump in the Division I rankings as well as the monster season from junior Andre Dorsey that saw him become the only athlete to rank top 10 nationally in three different events.
“Dorsey went [to nationals] this year in three events, which was awesome, and we ended up at one point being ranked 18th in the nation,” said sophomore Joseph Yates. “We’ve got a few other guys who are just beast as well, and if they can stay healthy and put in the work we should be able to do a lot better than that.”
Yates is coming of a successful indoor season of his own, having set personal records in five events in the heptathlon at the Atlantic Sun Championship.
“Last year was my first time doing most of the events in the multi, so it was a pretty big learning experience,” Yates said. “This year I had a lot of progress because the events are more familiar. I really wanted to make my mark and show what I could do, and it ended up turning out pretty well for me.”
In addition to athletic success, Yates was also one of six Owls to earn all-conference academic honors.’
“I’ve got some of the best coaches, a lot of my success is because of them, and I definitely have to thank God,” Yates said.
For the women’s team, despite improving on a 3rd place finish in 2013, the 2014 indoor season ended with a tough 2nd place finish behind Jacksonville University.
“We all knew coming into it that it’s going to be a fight,” said junior Alicia Whittle. “It always has been for every year that we’ve been at indoor.”
Whittle, who helped sweep the podium for the Owls in the 60-meter dash, called the 2nd place finish “solid,” acknowledging that the JU squad, who won their 9th consecutive conference title, was certainly tough competition.
“They’re very talented. We knew what we were getting into and that all we could do was just do our best. I’m pleased with the girls,” she said.
While finishing 2nd in the conference is certainly nothing to sneeze at, it’s abundantly clear that Eggerth and his Owls have higher goals in mind.
“One of my biggest focuses and passions is to get our women that team title,” Eggerth said.
In addition to breaking into the national scene, on the women’s side the focus is one of establishing some continuity.
“We have a new 4×1 team,” said Whittle. “We have two new legs for the first leg and the anchor, and we’ve been practicing for the past three weeks trying to get our handoffs right.”
Although the outdoor opener will represent the first time the current women’s 4×100 meter relay team will have raced together, Whittle and Eggerth have high familiarly high expectations for the group.
“If we get it right this weekend and at Texas, we should be going to the first round,” Whittle said.
“We should be top 8 in the nation, and we could be as good as 5th with that women’s 4×1,” Eggerth added.
Since joining KSU in 2010, Andy Eggerth’s tenure has been one of continued improvement and a winning mentality. From top to bottom, the KSU track and field teams exude a comprehensive desire to go further, to run faster and to jump higher. As the 2014 outdoor season gets underway, the question begged is, “How high can they go?”
