This season, men’s and women’s indoor track will be a marked team.

Last season, the Panthers swept the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships. The title was first in school history for the women, and the men have won the title for seven consecutive seasons.

While the men are used to being marked men, this will be new territory for the women.

The women must be prepared to get each team’s best shot at every single meet.

“You always end up a target when you win,” said head indoor track coach Tom Akers. “It is larger when Eastern wins. When we entered the conference and won, people did not like it. Over time, they have seen that we are a solid program for both men’s and women’s teams. But they still don’t like seeing us win it.”

Eastern throwing coach Mary Wallace said plenty of OVC teams would like to see Eastern fall off its perch.

“Most definitely, teams will be coming after us this year in both men’s and women’s,” Wallace said. “The OVC will be out for blood, and there are more than a few times that will want to knock us off our perch.”

With success comes hatred and jealousy. Both teams must be prepared this season to always be on their toes because at each meet, the competition will be gunning extra hard to take them down.

The women return plenty of members from a strong sophomore class, including OVC indoor 60-meter champion Chandra Golden.

The men will return individual champions middle distance runner David Holm, senior jumper Obe Eruteya and junior distance runner Brad Butler, while graduating four champions from last season.

The men have to continue what has made them successful during the seven-year championship run.

And the women have to realize they are where everyone wants to be. This season, they will be the hunter – and not the hunted.