Eastern’s track and field teams had an advantage at this past weekend’s Big Blue Classic.

With the near freezing temperatures, and wind chills making it feel even colder, some outdoor events were moved from O’Brien Stadium inside to Lantz Fieldhouse.

The 40-year old field house served its purpose.

Panther freshman thrower Kandace Arnold won the women’s shot put once it was moved inside.

Eastern has been training in Lantz Fieldhouse all year.

Senior distance runner Nicole Flounders said if Eastern didn’t have Lantz Fieldhouse, the Panther track and field program would be at a disadvantage.

“You’re sitting in the stands, you’re cold (without it)” Flounders said. “It’s really hard to warm up.” If you are not warmed up, you’re not ready to go fast until it is too late.”

Lantz Fieldhouse was a key asset to Eastern athletics this weekend, but what about the rest of the year?

Athletes and coaches take advantage of field house

Many Eastern athletic teams use Lantz Fieldhouse.

The fieldhouse has a six-lane, 200-meter track and five tennis courts. It also has areas for the long jump and triple jump pit and pole vault areas.

The facility measures 60,000 square feet and seats 600.

Primarily, the track and field team uses it.

“It’s such a nice facility that we can train in and do drills,” Flounders said. “It makes for really good performances.”

The baseball team also uses it when the weather is too cold to have practice outside.

The baseball team uses the batting cages to work on hitting and seeing the ball. Hitting and pitching are primarily what the team focuses on when indoors. “

Pitchers are getting their mounds in and hitters are hitting,” Schmitz said. “We know practices on those days are limited.”

Schmitz said the baseball team started practice inside this year on the first day after winter break ended.

But the practice routine is not as difficult as it was when Schmitz arrived in 1995.

“The first year was kind of hard,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz said in his first year, because other teams had to share the facility, they had to have practice at 5:45 a.m.

Baseball has to reproduce game-like situations inside that could be difficult.

“To set up a miniature infield is like basketball trying to play in the racquetball courts,” Schmitz said. “We scrimmage and do cuts and relays. (Lantz) allows us to do the two big things and that is to make sure the arms are healthy because we’re able to get the long toss and get the throwing in.”

However, Schmitz said there are concerns with Lantz Fieldhouse, mainly with the curtains.

Schmitz said the curtains are on a manual long track and need to be replaced because they are in danger of tearing apart. Schmitz said he would prefer an automatic track for the curtains.

“They’re old and breaking down,” he said.

The softball team also uses the facility in the fall, especially during inclement weather.

“We couldn’t practice during the fall (without it),” said senior catcher Sandyn Short. “That’s a lot of work we would miss out on.”

The softball team also uses the batting cages for hitting and seeing the ball. The softball players also hit into the side of the green curtains when assistant coach Linnea Utecht throws to them. They also use batting tee’s.

“It’s about reps and finding your groove and your muscle memory,” Short said. “It’s harder to work on defense in there. You don’t have the elements. The floor’s kind of spongy, springy, so the ball comes off it pretty quick. It rolls fast and the grounders are hard.”

Fieldhouse receives multiple facelifts

Lantz Fieldhouse was built in 1967.

“Everybody was building field houses,” said John McInerney, who competed for Eastern from 1975-79 in cross country and track and later became the Panthers head cross country coach and assistant track coach.

“We were one of the few places that didn’t because of (Maynard Pat) O’Brien. He insisted that we not build it around the basketball gym or the track team won’t be able to use it as much during basketball season. That’s a lot of insight on his part.”

McInerney said O’Brien, a former football, track and cross-country coach made sure that Lantz was built bigger for future pole vaulters.

O’Brien coached football at Eastern in the 1940s and 1950s, and was the track and field coach when the fieldhouse opened.

McInerney said that when he came here in the 1970s, the indoor track consisted of black asphalt.

McInerney also said the distance crew didn’t use it that often and in the 1980s, they put in a red rubberized surface.

In 2001, $650,000 was spent on this resurfacing of Lantz Fieldhouse. It reopened on Jan. 23, 2001.

“It was in serious need of repair,” McInerney said. “It was well worn. (It was) very hard on the athletes’ legs.”

According to The Daily Eastern News archives, Ken Baker, the current director of student recreation said the old surface had to be grounded down.

A layer of rubber asphalt was laid down, which must sit for 30 days.

The next layer was a blue Mondo surface.

A Mondo surface is a special type of track surface.

The scoreboard that’s currently inside the fieldhouse was also installed at this time.

The renovation set back the athletic teams for a while.

McInerney said the men’s track team used the Student Recreation Center and they also used the Armory, Illinois’ indoor facility, to train while Lantz was being renovated.

The women’s track and softball athletes had to use the Rec Center to practice.

“Groundballs would actually hit (the lip) when we extended the infield,” Schmitz said before the renovation.

Schmitz also said the renovation made the lighting better and it also helped on the players’ bodies.

“(The resurfacing is) softer on our legs,” he said.

Other OVC schools’ facilities

Tennessee State and Southeast Missouri are the only two other schools in the Ohio Valley Conference to have indoor facilities.

Tennessee State has the Gentry Center, which houses the gymnasium, an indoor pool, handball courts, a dance studio, offices, classrooms lounges and a track.

It opened on Dec. 2, 1980.

The lanes run around the basketball court at the Gentry Center and the lanes are 220-yards long.

Southeast Missouri uses their Student Recreational Center to host meets.

“It allows us to be in charge,” said SEMO track head coach Joey Haines.

That Student Recreational Center has four lanes for track and areas to throw the shot put and weight throw.

It first opened up in January of 1987 and also has full-size basketball, volleyball and racquetball courts, a weight room, a lounge area, a dance studio, a multi-purpose room, and climbing walls.

Premier tracks of the nation

One of the best facilities for indoor track and field is Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The Loftus Center has an indoor track and field complex that is also shared with the Fighting Irish football team.

“It has a great facility for running,” said Eastern head coach Tom Akers.

The Last Chance meets, which Eastern competed in, were run there.

“The Notre Dame meet has produced some of the fastest times in the distance medley,” Akers said.

The Panthers’ DMR squad set the Eastern school record there in early March (9 minutes, 45 seconds).

The Loftus Center contains a 320-meter track, the largest indoor track in the United States.

A longer track makes for less tight turns, which makes it easier on the runner and they run less laps.

Another facility that is well known is Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.

The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships have been held there for the past several years.

This red and gray track is one of the premier tracks in the country and produces top times. It also hosts other big meets such as the Tyson Invitational, where United States Track and Field members compete.

It was built in 2000 and is a 200-meter, 60-degree Mondo track.

Unlike Lantz Field House, there is a separate area between the track and the audience. There is also a warm-up area.

There are 55-meter straight-aways that run the entire length of the facility.

It also includes men’s and women’s jumping runways and pits inside the track.

Lantz has their runways and its pits outside of the track.

“(Their runway) is a raised wooden platform with Mondo on top of it,” Akers said. “The more hard and the denser the Mondo material is, the more you get back from it. There’s a little bounce in it. You get a little spring return in it, as well.”

Other state schools interact with their indoor facilities.

The Armory is the indoor track and field facility at Illinois.

“Every group has their own interaction,” said Brian Walsh, coordinator at the Armory at the UIUC.

Walsh interacts with physical education majors, Illinois athletes and community members, which he said is difficult, but he loves doing it.

Western Illinois and Northern Illinois do not have an indoor athletic facility like Lantz Fieldhouse. Bradley does not have an indoor facility, either.

Southern Illinois uses its student recreational facility, similar to Eastern’s suspended track in the Student Recreational Center, for track events.

Illinois State is the only other public, Division I school to have a separate indoor track and field facility.

Illinois Wesleyan, Lewis University, Monmouth College and Knox Colleges are schools at the Division II and III level that have indoor track facilities.

“It allows us to work out year round,” said Wesleyan head coach Chris Schumacher.

The same is true for Eastern. Having one of the few indoor facilities in the OVC gives the Panthers an advantage. This was evident this February. The Eastern women won their first ever indoor title, and the men won their 10th conference title in the last 11 years.

“If you are not warmed up,” Flounders said, “you’re not ready to go fast until it is too late.”

Facts about Lantz:

Opened in 1967

60,000 square feet

Renovated in 2001

Contains batting cages, five tennis courts, six-lane 200-meter indoor track

Hosted during the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships

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Former Eastern starting fullback dave Campione, a senior physical education major, trains for a professional football combine at the Lantz Fieldhouse on Tuesday afternoon that he will be competing in during May. (Jay Grabiec/The Daily Eastern News)

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