Adams, Lutzke to California; rest of men's team travels to Tennessee
With no end in sight to winter in Mount Pleasant, the Central Michigan men's track and field team will get the opportunity to travel to warmer climates this weekend.
The Chippewas will have members compete at two separate meets this weekend. Most of the team will be attending the Black and Gold Invitational hosted by the University of Vanderbilt, while distance runners Tecumseh Adams and Matt Lutzke will run at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.
“With the nice weather last week, we got a really good practice in,” said Willie Randolph, director of track and field. "This week everyone has been extremely focused, we have been in a zone and we're trying to make practice perfect.”
Good practice couldn’t have come at a better time. The Stanford Invitational is one of the largest and most competitive meets in the country, with athletes from all over the country competing. It will give the Chippewas' distance runners a good measuring stick to start the outdoor season.
As for the Vanderbilt meet, the team is looking to start the season off right against some solid competition as well as get some much-needed competition in the events specific to outdoor competition, like the hammer throw, discus, and other relay events.
“With the relays there is a lot of things you can make errors in,” Randolph said. "We haven’t been outside dealing with the elements, so that’s something we need to focus on.”
The outdoor season is something that most of the athletes on the team are looking forward to as most of them has spent their entire lives competing outside and there is a certain comfort zone doing that.
“I’m looking forward to getting a solid start to my outdoor season,” said junior thrower Ryan McCullough. “I want to show I'm way ahead of where I was last year. I think that shows the hard work I have put in."
McCullough and the rest of the Chippewas open up competition in their two-day meets at 11 a.m. today.
