With just one weekend left in the regular season, the Vandal track and field team will compete in the WAC Championships in Moscow starting Tuesday at the Dan O’Brien Track and Field Complex.
“I’m stoked, I like being on the new track,” sophomore Andrew Bloom said. “We’re the only ones who have actually seen it so far.”
The track is new, but the Vandals are familiar with success. The Idaho men’s team won the WAC Indoor Championship and the women’s team placed second earlier this year. The Vandals have also seen numerous breaks into the Idaho all-time top-10 record books this season. They had five new entries last week at the Duane Hartman Invitational alone.
“I think it was a really good season,” Bloom said. “I’d say (our confidence is) pretty high. Having so many records is always a plus and then having a WAC Athlete of the Week every week is also really awesome.”
Bloom and freshman Ben Ayesu-Attah are the primary sprinters for the Vandal men. Throughout much of the outdoor season, their primary competition has been themselves. The duo often finishes first and second in the 400-meter and they have a good shot at placing in the WAC Championship.
“We both pull on each other’s energy,” Bloom said. “It’s awesome to have him right there. At (the 400-meter) we have definitely a good chance of getting hopefully top three.”
In the distance races, senior Stephane Colle has had a stand-out year for the Vandals. Colle has been named the WAC Track Athlete of the Week for two consecutive weeks. He has also burst into the Idaho all-time top 10 in the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter so far this season.
“I guess it means that all the hard work I’ve put in this year is coming along and I’m running consistently running good times,” Colle said of his accomplishments. “It’s just a good build up for the first round of NCAA and the WAC Championship at home this year.”
On the women’s side, a solid group of distance runners are the strength of the track squad. Distance runner’s Hannah Kiser, Erica Digby, Lauren Schaffer, Anna Kalbrener and steeplechasers Alycia Butterworth and Holly Stanton are all-time Idaho top-10 runners in their events.
Even with all the success this year, there has been a dark side to the Vandals’ season. Illness has prevented many of the runners from competing throughout the year.
“I don’t think we’re as prepared as we would have liked to have been,” Butterworth said. “I don’t think we’re as strong as we hoped coming into outdoor (because of illness) but we’ll still post some really good times at WAC.”
The Idaho men’s and women’s track and field teams excited to compete in the WAC Championships in Moscow on the refurbished Dan O’Brien Track and Field Complex and hope to repeat the success they had during the indoor championship.
“Once you’ve won, it’s easier to kind of keep winning a little bit,” Idaho Director of Track and Field Wayne Phipps said. “They kind of know what it takes to win now (after winning indoors).”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]