As 2023 rolls on, the SPU track and field team is preparing to move from their indoor season to outdoor meets. Both the women’s and men’s teams open their outdoor season with a meet at the PLU Open on March 11. 

While the indoor season still has several meets to go, including the Great Northwest Athletic Conference indoor championships on Feb. 20 and 21, the team has already had several prominent performances from athletes.

“There has been some good stuff. We’re really excited about a few of the individual athletes. Vanessa Aniteye is running really well. David Njeri has continued his trajectory in the triple jump. It’s been nice to see how well Libby Michael has been running, which is something that she hasn’t had an opportunity to do the last few years,” Chris Reed, associate head track and field coach, said. “I could go through the list. There’s a lot of people we’re excited about.” 

Julius Shepherd, a senior business administration major on the team, echoed these statements. 

“A lot of people have put up some really good times. It’s early in the season, we definitely have a long way to go, but we’re on a good path right now.”

Most impressive among the recent Falcon achievements has been Vanessa Aniteye’s two minute, 10.83 second personal record in the 800 meters, which is also first among all NCAA Division II runners. 

Coach Reed says that there is plenty of competitive spirit and drive to improve among the team.

“There’s always a sense of wanting to improve our overall fitness, strength and speed. I don’t think anyone is in this sport in order to stagnate. Everybody wants to improve and get better as the season goes,” Reed said. “Part of it is just going to come from time and training. What I’m looking forward to most is seeing people get into more competitive situations and channel themselves as competitors.” 

While the team still has over a month left in the indoor season, spring is right around the corner. The outdoor season starts on March 11 at the PLU Open and continues the next week with the SPU-hosted Doris Heritage Track Festival in Renton on March 18.  

The athletes are pumped up for the beginning of the outdoor season. 

“We’re excited to get out in the sun, finally be outdoors and all compete together,” freshman Nate Thomas said. 

Coach Reed says that while the team isn’t likely to be world-beaters, they will not be disappointing, either. 

“On paper, I’d say both our men’s team and women’s team project to be somewhere in the middle of the conference,” he said. “For us, it’s going to be a matter of how well we execute our training [and] competitiveness, how healthy we stay, and that’s going to dictate where among the middle teams we’re going to finish.” 

But more than the team’s final standing, what Coach Reed emphasized was the competitive spirit of the athletes.  

“What I’m looking forward to most is seeing people get into more competitive situations and channel themselves as competitors,” Reed said. “And [for them to] be more than somebody who is just fit and fast but somebody who makes themselves hard to beat, who makes themselves somebody who their opponents fear a little bit and having that kind of grit and relentlessness.”