Track & Field Gets It Started Outdoors In Texas

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Next for Central Michigan track & field: the great outdoors.

The Chippewas open the 2021 outdoor season on Thursday with a trip to Texas where they will simultaneously partake in two meets, The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin and the Texas State Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos.

The meets are the first two of eight in which CMU will compete leading up to the Mid-American Conference Championships on May 7-8 at Miami (Ohio). The Chippewas are scheduled to participate in meets at Louisville, Oakland, Indiana State, Hillsdale and Notre Dame.

The Chippewas had a successful indoor season, capping it with senior Quiara Wheeler earning Second Team All-America honors in the weight throw at the NCAA Championships. CMU finished a solid fifth at the MAC Indoor Championships less than a month ago.

"I just want to build on what we did indoors," CMU coach Jenny Swieton said. "Obviously the first couple of meets, you don't know what's going to happen. Some of the events change a little and you add some events (outdoors) that you don't have indoors.

"It's about getting used to the differences between the two. We're going to have run in wind, snow and rain - all that stuff. Indoors you don't have to worry about those factors and we want to get them used to the differences early in the season. We also want to get some good marks coming off of the momentum we had indoors and gain some confidence moving forward with the outdoor season."

Several Chippewas will compete both at Texas and at Texas State. Both meets will be contested over three days, concluding on Saturday.

"For us it's a really good opportunity because we're guaranteed good weather down there, so we are able to get the races in," Swieton said. "We have some opportunities to have some big things happen this year and we want to make sure that we're setting up our student-athletes to have their best performances. We feel like our schedule does that pretty well."

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Players Mentioned

Quiara Wheeler