Avery Boulware, Campus Carrier Sports Editor
On March 5, as many students were scattered across the country celebrating the first day of spring break, the Berry track and field team informally opened Clark Track and Dickey Field at the Victor Icebreaker meet.
Thirteen schools competed in the meet from Division I, II and III teams. Attendance was high, including students who stayed in Rome for spring break. College President Stephen R. Briggs and athletic director Todd Brooks also attended.
“It started out being a low-key meet, but it ended up being a lot bigger than we anticipated,” head coach Luke Syverson said. “It was the informal opening, but it still ended up being a good contest.”
Syverson wanted the first meet to be the informal opening of the facilities. The official opening will be on April 9, the next and last home meet scheduled for the year. Several factors affected the decision, including possible inclement weather and possible low attendance numbers.
“[Using a new facility] is like test-driving a new car,” Syverson said. “You get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.”
One minor problem that the athletes encountered was that the throwing area is smaller and more condensed than other facilities, which made for a slightly longer meet. Despite this small issue, Syverson said, the most common response from other coaches was admiration for the new facilities.
With a new stadium comes new stadium records, so every athlete that won an event at the Icebreaker meet is now a record-holder. Berry athletes that now hold stadium records are freshman Alexa Bilsky in the javelin throw and junior Eli Sumner in pole vault. The women’s 4×100 meter relay team, consisting of sophomore JoCee North, sophomore Camille Bryan, junior Lauren Merical and freshman Amy Ethridge, also broke a school record set in 1979.
Despite the pressure of competing at home and in a new stadium, both men’s and women’s teams scored highly at the meet. The women’s team placed fourth and the men’s team placed fifth out of the twelve schools that were represented.
“Now we can actually compete against others,” senior Rachel Dorris said. “We were only scoring for distance, but now we can score in sprints and throwing and other events.”
Berry has had distance runners on the team for several years, so there has technically been a team in place, but they have not been able to place at meets.
Though the team is small, Syverson said he is impressed with the hard work that the athletes have put forth throughout the season.
“The quality that we have in each of the event areas is really good,” Syverson said. “We might only have one girl thrower but she’s finishing in the top 5 in every event. We don’t have a lot of depth, but the quality is really good, which helps us score at big meets.”
Sophomore Gino Fabrizio is hopeful that in future seasons the track and field program will continue to get stronger as more athletes are added to the team.
“Even though it’s the first year, I feel like we’re making good steps,” he said. “We have great people to build a foundation for the new recruits next year.”