2008 Woodie Awards
Women prepare for indoor season
By: Tim Ottusch
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Sports
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CMU competes in the Michigan State Invitational, a non-scoring meet prior to the beginning of the indoor season.
"There's nothing like stepping on the track and seeing where you're at," said coach Karen Lutzke.
Lutzke said it will be good to face competition before the Chippewa Open on Jan. 11.
"You can practice all year long, however long you want, but it's not the same as the competition," Lutzke said.
The coaches are using the meet as a chance to see where the underclassmen are in their training and their progression as the indoor season approaches.
"We have seven seniors, we have a lot of freshmen this year so we have a lot of uncertainties," Lutzke said, "Our goal is to see mainly where our younger athletes are at this point. We've got an idea of where our upperclassman are, but it's really important for our younger athletes to get of feel for what they need to do over the next month to get ready for our first meet in January."
Although the team is young, it still expects to perform well.
"We should have some good surprise performances," said assistant coach Larry Levine.
The meet will feature the middle distance runners, sprinters and the field events. The long distance runners will not participate because the cross country season just finished and they are taking a little time off to get ready for the season opener in indoor.
"The cross country distance runners had some time off after the cross country season and they just need a break from racing," Lutzke said.
Lutzke expects to see good things from senior middle distance runner Jenaie Edwards, last season's indoor 400-meter dash champion, senior sprinter Tempestt Stanford, sophomore sprinter Stephanie Byrne, sophomore middle distance runners Erin Dillon and Cara Dukes and sophomore jumper Erika Schroll.
In the throwing events, Levine expects sophomores Whitney Johnson and Charity Sunderman to lead them.
"Whitney Johnson has really matured well this year," Levine said. "She is sophomore eligibility-wise. She came to us in January last year so she didn't have the advantage of full preseason program and still did well. I think she's going to be a big surprise for us."
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