With many of the athletes having close to three months to prepare for the Early Bird Meet, last December, the outcome was evidence of all the preparation.

Eastern had four medal winners and three women make it into Eastern’s top ten list.

Freshman Caitlin Finnegan and Kandace Arnold both made the list in their first collegiate meet.

Finnegan placed eighth on Eastern’s all-time top ten in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.38 seconds.

Arnold placed sixth on the list in the weight throw (52 feet 2 in.) and eighth in the shot put (43 feet 10.75 in.).

Sophomore Shawana Smith placed eighth on the top ten in the 200-meter (25.74 seconds) and 60-meter dash (7.84 sec.).

Smith said she wants to push herself to get even better and even though it was hard over break she still kept practicing.

“I live right in the middle of Chicago and it is hard to get around, everything is spread out,” Smith said. “With the traffic and the weather it was tough but I practiced with my old high school coach. But none of that is equivalent to what we do here. It is good to be back.”

No time for breaks

“It usually takes about three weeks to get back to where we were in December because we had about three months to prepare for that one day (Early Bird),” said women’s head coach Mary Wallace.

Now the runners have just come off a three-week break and have only two weeks to prepare for the upcoming Mega Meet at 9 a.m. Jan. 20 at Lantz Arena.

The break helped some of the women, while others may have been slowed down by the lack of practice as a team.

“I practiced on my street, that was my track because I live in the country,” said senior jumper Deb Hasick. “It was difficult because it was cold, and my lungs and what not. But it was still good to have somewhere to train and be doing something.”

Freshman distance runner Erin O’Grady said training over the break and staying with it helped to show her how disciplined and strong she can be on her own.

Injury update

Men’s head coach Tom Akers said his biggest concern on the women’s side is the handful of injuries and thin lineup.

“I was really pleased with our performance in the Early Bird Meet and now all we need to do is keep training hard and get healthy,” Akers said.

Sprinters Tarra Grant, Chandra Golden, Samantha Manto, and Ogechi Nwordu have been trying to train and get back to a competitive level.

Golden said she felt really good about her training and is hoping to be back close to normal speed by next week.

Manto broke her right fibula during the rugby season but said she is doing well.

“I just had my X-ray, and it has been about two months and it looked awesome,” Manto said. “You can’t see the break and it is not edgy or anything.”

Grant said she is just going to take it slowly and not rush anything.

“It is going to take time,” Grant said. “Injuries happen but my main focus is to get back out there and compete.”