Change In The Weather? Guthrie, Chippewas Hope So
4/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | MTF
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - In track and field, success is based on empirical evidence provided by the stopwatch or the tape measure.
It would be nice, Central Michigan director of track and field Mark Guthrie says, if those measurements were the only factors with which he might be concerning himself these days.
Guthrie will send his student-athletes to two sites this weekend, the Gibson Invitational at Indiana State and the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State.
The Chippewa throwers will go to MSU, while the balance of the team will head to Indiana State. Unseasonably cold temperatures are predicted at both sites, marking the second consecutive week that most of the CMU student-athletes will compete under less-than-ideal conditions.
Last weekend, the vast majority of the Chippewas competed in the Big Blue Classic at Eastern Illinois, where extremely strong winds made it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions from times or distances, Guthrie said, adding that setting that gauge is the point of early season meets.
"In 42 years of coaching that's the worst wind I've ever been in," he said. "Our kids were competitive. They didn't grumble, didn't complain. Just went out and ran. They competed."
And a good number of Chippewas - CMU also competed last weekend at Stanford and San Francisco State -- did manage to record times and/or distances that will qualify them for the Mid-American Conference Championships in a month in Toledo.
Satisfying, certainly, but "you're always greedy as a head coach," Guthrie said. "You want more. We're just trying to be a little bit better than we were. At some point we're going to catch a break and go off."
Highlighting CMU's performances last weekend were the throwers along with pole vaulter Sam Wagner and triple jumper Jake Peister.
Peister and Wagner won their respective events, while the Chippewas also got victories from Cole Walderzack (men's discus and hammer throw), Kevin Weiler (men's shot put), Kyleigh Young (women's javelin), Kylie Dobbelaere (women's hammer throw).
Players Mentioned
