Repeat.

The focus for the men’s and women’s indoor track team is repeating their last season success.

Both squads are coming off Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships.

They both open their indoor track seasons Saturday with the Early Bird Invite featuring Western Illinois, Butler University, Vincennes Community College, and St. Xavier.

Eastern head track coach Tom Akers said that the men’s and women’s teams are ready to do good things.

“We are young and we will look to evaluate our athletes at this first meet,” Akers said. “We have looked good in practice so far, but a lot of times, guys will look great in practice and screw it up during the meet.”

Akers said coaches look for the competitiveness and team demeanor more than anything in the first meet.

“With the first meet we want to look for the competitiveness of our athletes,” Akers said. “When we are being challenged we want to see how we respond. When things get intense we want to see if we push back or give in.”

Another thing Akers is looking for is if the team will blend together.

“Track may be an individual sport, but it is important to see if our teams pull together,” Akers said.

Freshman hurdler Preston Smith said he feels the men will have a good meet.

“I feel confident in our squad,” Smith said. “I know that will be competitive, we just have to make sure that we finish.”

Smith said he has been practicing since August in both track and cross-country and is excited for the first meet.

“When you start to practice for track, you know the meets are coming,” Smith said. “Basically the team wants to see if all the practice has been paying off for us.”

Junior throw and jumper Nicole Walcott said the women’s team will be strong again despite the loss of some seniors.

“We should be very strong again this season,” Walcott said. “We swept both indoor and outdoor last season.”

One of the reasons Walcott thinks the Panthers can repeat is the freshmen who have stepped in for the seniors.

“We lost some key senior from last season, but the freshman have picked it up,” Walcott said. “The freshman have picked up the technique and have really connected with the upperclassman.”

Walcott’s personal goals are to improve on where she was, and set an example for underclassmen.

“Throw I picked up strong,” Walcott said. “I just want to be stronger than I was last year. As an upperclassman I just want to go out and set an example to empower the freshman.”

The first field event will begin Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in Lantz Indoor Field house with men’s weight throws.

The first track event will begin at noon with the men’s 60-meter preliminaries.