The University of Idaho Argonaut

The University of Idaho track and field team practices Tuesday in the Kibbie Dome. The Vandals are taking on intensive preseason training to prepare for their first meet in January. Steven Devine / Argonaut

Sweat ran down the side of one man’s face. A woman’s arms trembled under the weights. The loud music powered through the weight room. The coached pushed them to keep going.

It was another day in the weight room for the track and field team.

The intense fitness regimes the athletes are going through is only the beginning. Right after summer the track team is back to the grind slowly working up to where they need to be. Getting back into shape after a long break is one of the hardest conditioning times of the year, All-American pole-vaulter K.C. Dahlgren said.

“500-meter repeats in the arboretum are killer,” Andrew Blaser said. “That’s definitely the worst workout because we’re all just coming off of break.”
The team fights through the different waves of workouts, such as runs through the arboretum, lifting weights, and Brazilians — a combination of sprints and other workouts. Each phase takes a toll on more than just their bodies.

“They are so hard, so exhausting,” senior Sam Michener said. “Mentally, base-phase is exhausting, but it’s important. We have to train to run fast.”  
Blaser said it’s not a very glamorous time of the season — no races, no medals, no traveling — just coming in every day and pushing themselves to improve.

“We have to build our strength before working on technique,” Mykael Bothum said.

Bothum is an All-American and said she knows the hard work it takes to get to the levels the team needs to be at to perform well. She said the strength behind your throw is just as important as the technique you use to throw.

Every year the team is trying to be ahead of where they were last year and she said so far the athletes and coaches can see the improvement from last year.
“We want to be ahead of the game, which I can see happening for a lot of athletes,” Bothum said.

Last year the coaches red-shirted some of the athletes to help bring the strongest team possible to the track this season. Teevens said the team is coming together great and looking really strong. On the women’s side of the team, the seniors are doing better and the younger athletes are stepping up, wanting to improve, Dahlgren said.

“The training is going very well — they are ahead of where they were last year,” weight-training coach Joe Herold said. “But this is a great group, they understand what they need to do and always come in excited to work hard.”

Herold works mainly with the throwers to develop a strong, explosive base for their season. The intensity in the weight room is really high right now, Herold said. The athletes are working with Herold around four days a week right now but will scale back slightly and move toward skills training after fall break.

The trainers work hard to develop workouts that can maximize performance for the sport but also for the individual. Herold tailors certain aspects of the training to work better with the women’s team and the men’s team. Herold said he adjusts to each individual athlete by changing up the lifts and going from machine lifting to free weights,. 

“Weight training is a great indicator of where the team is at because you can compare it with other years,” Herold said. “This is a strong group.”

The majority of the team is returning athletes, but some eager new members are on the team as well. Ulrike Hartz is a multi-event athlete from Germany who is expected to make major contributions to this year’s team. Hartz said she works out a lot longer and a lot harder here. She said it is a lot different here working with a team and getting that support from other track athletes, something she didn’t experience back in Germany.

Preseason is also a time when the athletes spend a lot of time together and develop many relationships. They use this time to build a support network that they can rely on during the season.

“Right now is a big time for the team,” Dahlgren said. “You hear a lot of encouragement back and forth pushing each other to work harder.”

The strong team from last year is returning to the field with some improvements. Teevens said the women’s team is in a good position to win conference in the indoor and the outdoor this year. She said there are about 15 athletes who stand out, including Dahlgren and Bothum, but as a whole the team is very well rounded and should be strong across the board.

“We’re all really excited for the season to start,” Bothum said. “We can’t wait to show off our hard work.”