Talent crop has CMU women’s track poised for run

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The women’s track team starts its first season without graduated All-American Tamera Thomas this weekend.

Central Michigan was picked to finish fourth in the Mid-American Conference and hosts its season-opening Chippewa Open at 5 p.m. Friday at the Jack Skoog Track.

The Chippewas finished fifth in the MAC in 2006 and look to build on that with the talent returning to the team this season.

“We have to go out and prove what we are capable of doing and start setting the standard for everyone in the MAC,” said coach Karen Lutzke. “We’ll be up there in the MAC standings if we stay healthy all season.”

CMU was picked to finish behind defending indoor track and field champion Akron. Western Michigan and Ball State also were picked to finish ahead of Central by the indoor track coaches in the conference.

Akron and Ball State both are beneficiaries of two returning All-MAC selections, while Western returns one.

CMU boasts a young team as it enters the season with 12 new student athletes competing.

“The preseason poll is not on our minds,” Lutzke said. “What we do in competition is important. We had a good intrasquad meet in December and we hope that will translate into a good year.”

The Chippewas come into the season with a very strong roster despite their youth, including five members who scored points last year.

CMU returns a quartet of seniors, including Amanda Lyon, Tomea Peebles, Najah Floyd and Lisa Krueger, who all led CMU in scoring at the indoor meet last season.

Lyon finished fifth in the 800m run, Peebles finished sixth in the triple jump, Floyd finished seventh in the 400m and Krueger finished eighth in the 800m.

Also returning is junior Tempestt Stanford, who led all scorers with a fourth place finish in the 60m dash.

“We have a lot of depth and talent across the board,” Lyon said. “We talked about going after winning the championship this season and we really believe we can do it.”

Central has four fifth-year seniors competing this season. The team returns Mary Raney, a regional qualifier in the shotput, and Jackie Smart, a fifth-year senior in the long jump, triple jump and hurdles. Junior middle distance runner Jenaie Edwards also is back after winning a MAC championship and qualifying for both regionals and nationals in 2006.

“We have a strong group of seniors, which will help us in the conference,” Lutzke said. “Our fifth-year seniors are competitive and strong leaders and we are looking forward to them leading the team.”

Key teams competing are Michigan, Michigan State, Northwood, Detroit, and Ferris State.

“This year’s Chippewa Open is bigger than usual,” Lutzke said. “Our athletes will continue to improve and we hope our intrasquad meet in December will result in great competition.”

sports@cm-life.com