Avery Boulware, Campus Carrier Sports Editor
Berry track and field opened their season this Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. with their first full team in over 30 years.
“For some of the upper classmen, it was their first track meet since high school, which could have been three years ago,” head coach Luke Syverson said. “We have some people that didn’t even do track in high school, so it was their first-ever experience at a meet. It was a day of firsts in a lot of areas.”
The meet was more of a learning experience than anything, Syverson explained. The team is on the small side, with only around 45 athletes in all, while a larger school might have more than 90 athletes.
“It was a great first meet to see where we all stand against the other athletes and get ready for the season,” said junior Sam Berendsen, who set a personal record by 13.4 seconds in the 3,000-meter race. “I knew I could stay with the top guys, and was ready to just hang on with them and hopefully turn out with a good time.”
Saturday’s meet brought over 1,000 athletes to Birmingham. The size of the meet seemed to encourage Berry athletes to step up their game.
“I set a PR in the 3K because I was put with runners that were at a much higher level than I was,” said freshman Juan Chavez. “There were runners from D1 and D2 schools.”
Because of the small size of the team, events are sporadically filled by Berry athletes. For example, pole vault is Berry’s strongest field event, with four women and two men competing, but there are no male sprinters and only a few female sprinters. There were several freshman recruits that came to Berry specifically to be on the 2015-2016 team, but most of the athletes were distance runners pulled from the cross country teams. Because of the heavy influx of cross country runners, the team is very strong in distance events.
“Almost all the cross country runners will run track,” Syverson said. “They train year round. They are truly the last two-sport athletes in college athletics.”
Syverson has taken great care to make sure his athletes are in top condition.
“The girls are running more miles this semester than we did last semester,” said freshman Ellie Sanders. “We had a lot of injuries on the girls’ side, so [Coach Syverson] is upping our training.”
Sanders herself is injured and could not compete in the meet on Saturday, but is looking forward to a quick recovery and hopes to compete for a conference position later in the season.
Syverson said that he is looking forward to a season of learning and growing as Berry’s track and field program’s presence is established on campus.
“My expectations are that we just work to get better and work towards something that’s a little more long-term,” Syverson said. “It’s not instant gratification. We’re going to do this well now, so that next year and the year after we can build on that. It’s like when you build a building. You can’t rush it. You have to start with that foundation.”
