Big East Track Preview
May 03, 2005 03:08 PM | General
May 3, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University women’s track coach Jeff Huntoon will take 20 athletes to this year’s Big East outdoor track and field championships to be held at Rutgers University this weekend.
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| Sophomore Jessica Czaikowski is ranked 41st in the nation in the 100 hurdles this week.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The veteran coach says those 20 athletes will compete in all but three of the 20 scheduled events at this year’s meet.
“We’re covered pretty well,” he said. “The only events we will not compete in are pole vault, shot put and discus.”
The strength of this year’s team is in the distance events where seniors Jennifer Kemp, Megan Metcalfe and Jennifer Davis are each nationally ranked.
Kemp is ranked 13th in the 1,500 with a top time of 4:21.30 and 26th in the 800 with a time of 2:07.66. Jennifer Davis is ranked 16th in the 5,000 with a time of 16:26.22 and 47th in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 10:42.58.
Jennifer’s twin sister Susan Davis is ranked 57th in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 10:46.89.
All-American Megan Metcalfe is ranked 28th this week in the 5,000 with a time of 16:31.20, which she achieved recently at West Virginia Wesleyan. Metcalfe has been balancing her track schedule this spring with an internship as part of her exercise physiology degree.
“It’s been hit or miss as far when we can get her into a meet,” Huntoon said. “She’s got the NCAA Regional qualifier in the 5,000 and we had to go down to West Virginia Wesleyan to do it. Every day she misses she has to make up.”
Sophomore Jessica Czaikowski has the nation’s 41st fastest time in the 100 hurdles and is tied with Villanova sophomore Monique Morgan for the fastest time in the conference.
Sophomore Abbie Stechschulte has come on strong in the heptathlon and is currently ranked 31st in the country with a season-best score of 5,047 points which she recorded earlier this spring.
Czaikowski in the 100 hurdles, Kemp in the 800 meters and Metcalfe in either the 1,500 or the 5,000 are West Virginia’s strongest contenders for Big East titles.
Because Jennifer Davis is such a strong entrant in the 5,000, Huntoon is contemplating bumping Metcalfe up to 1,500 if she’s capable of doing it.
“We’re deciding what we’re going to do with her,” Huntoon said. “She’s very fit and rested. In the shorter events you need to run that a little more often so you have a feel for the race. She doesn’t have that. In the 5,000 we tell her to go out and run a split and she will just grind it out. I think she’s a lot more ready than people realize.”
Czaikowski’s run to nationals as a freshman began at Big East outdoors last year and Huntoon says she’s further along this spring.
“She is three-tenths of a second better than where she was last year at this time. She’s not done yet by any means,” he said.
Senior Tara Struyk has battled injuries this spring but she should be ready to turn things loose in either the 5,000 or 10,000 this weekend.
Huntoon believes Stechschulte could be a strong contender in the heptathlon. She is less than 90 points shy of meet favorite Tamara McGill of Pitt. “She’s got to improve a little bit but she’s just 75-100 points off qualifying for nationals,” said Huntoon.
With the departure of Miami to the ACC the sprint events are wide open, according to Huntoon. West Virginia’s corps of sprinters is young but has made steady improvement this spring.
“I’ve got two 200 girls that are a tenth of a second from qualifying for the NCAA Regionals in Junique Morris and Shani Boone,” said Huntoon. “Rhea Mann has a chance in the intermediates of qualifying for NCAA Regionals. She’s just a second off and she was in a real good groove at the end of last weekend.
“The sprint side and hurdle side are young,” Huntoon added. “They’ve got to trust themselves. We could have two people in the finals of the 100 or we could have nobody. Same goes for the 200. It’s exciting and they’re starting to come around and I’m encouraged with the direction that they’re going in.”
Huntoon says he hopes to field a pair of strong relays this weekend in the 4x100 and 4x800. The 4x100 team is made up of former North Carolina A&T transfer Alexis Noel, Czaikowski, Morris and Boone. The 4x800, which does not compete at nationals, will be made up of Metcalfe, Kemp and the Davis twins.
“The girls came within four-tenths of a second of qualifying for regionals in the 4 x 100. It is a team that I’ve kind of had to put together,” Huntoon said.
Huntoon believes junior Nancy Regalbuto, who won the high jump at Penn Relays last weekend, is a top-five contender this weekend as well.
Even though the coach has some choices to make as far as which events are best suited for certain runners, he doesn’t think spacing should be much of a problem this weekend.
“There are a couple of people that I would like to put in other events but I can’t because of the time frame of the meet,” he said. “If you have a good 100 or 200 person who also runs hurdles you’ve got to pick two out of three – you can’t pick all three just because of the way the meet is set up. If you have somebody who is potentially good at both the 400 and 800 you can’t do that because they’re back to back. The conference has tried to even things out as best as they can.”
The coach estimates a good portion of his team’s points this weekend will probably come in just a handful of races.
“As many as a third of the points that we can possibly score will come from five of the 20 people that are going. Those five expect to have good meets,” he said.
Huntoon says performing well at this weekend’s meet has been a year-long goal for his team.
“This was our goal all year long to try and do as well as we can in the Big East outdoor championships. Knowing that Megan was going to be back and hoping that Tara (Stryuk) was going to get another year of eligibility and she did,” he said. “Also, just knowing that we want to get better and better as the year progresses. We’re very close and we’re as confident as we can be.”
Last year West Virginia placed eighth. Miami claimed the meet title with 160 points followed by Pitt with 107. The Hurricanes won four straight Big East titles and six of the last seven before leaving the conference.
Notre Dame, with top 10-ranked sprinter Maryann Erigha, and a pair of top-10 runners in the 5,000 in Stephanie Madia and Sunni Olding, is the meet favorite. Pittsburgh, with the sprinting depth to fill the void left by Miami, will also contend for the title.
