Friday will mark the Eastern track and field team’s first home meet of the outdoor season. For seniors like distance runner Lea Viano, this is one of many “last firsts” of her final year at Eastern.

Viano said that going into Big Blue Classic comes with a mix of emotions.

“With Friday night being my last first home meet, it’s very bittersweet but also exciting,” Viano said. “It’s been a good four years of training hard and racing. To make it to this point (is) very special and a huge accomplishment.”

Although this meet is a mark of finality for Viano, she is doing something for the first time in her career as an Eastern athlete. Viano said she is running the 10-kilometer race for the first time.

Viano ran the 3,000-meter run, 5,000-meter run and the mile race in the indoor season. She ran her best 5,000-meter run in February, coming in at 18 minutes, 53.19 seconds. She also broke a personal record at Eastern’s John Craft Invite in the mile with a time of 5:42.05.

Viano said that going into a new race gives her a sense of nervousness, but she said she is looking forward to competing in a new race.

“I think my biggest challenge for this meet is the unknown. With never racing the 10K on the track, it makes me somewhat nervous, but I know I am capable of (running) it and staying positive,” she said.

The outdoor season will be a culmination of training and extra work during the indoor season, Viano said. She added that she and her teammates utilized their spring break to follow a workout plan based on their individual events.

Viano has one outdoor meet in the books already as the team competed in the Southern Illinois-Carbondale Bill Cornell Classic last weekend. She ran the 1,500-meter run, finishing in 5:09.78. No Eastern athletes ran the 10-kilometer run at that meet.

Being a senior has given Viano a chance to guide the underclassmen on the distance squad. She said she has enjoyed being their mentor on and off the track.

“As a senior, I feel I have done a good job leading the underclassmen especially the freshman,” Viano said. “There are two other senior girls that help lead with me. I think we all have showed the underclassmen what it means to be a Panther and given them insight on how to lead a team.”

The other two senior women on the distance team are Maria Baldwin and Caroline Collet. Baldwin also ran in the 1,500-meter run at Carbondale, finishing in 4:55.18. Collet competed in the 5,000-meter run, finishing in 19:40.40.

Viano said she has enjoyed being surrounded by talented women both within the distance circle and outside of it. She describe the distance part of the team as a close-knit group that is friends even off the track.

Overcoming an injury in her freshman and sophomore years was hard on Viano both mentally and physically, she said. However, the injury allowed her to develop a strong mentality, and that is something that she hopes to leave the team with.

“One thing I want to leave with the team is the mentality to never give up and keeping working for something greater,” Viano said. “Being a (Division I) athlete is not easy; it takes sacrifice, hard work and a good attitude. To my fellow teammates, and future Panthers, work hard, stay positive when it gets hard, and most of all have fun.”

The track and field team will host the Big Blue Classic this weekend, starting at 1 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday at O’Brien Field.

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 581-2812 or krcordes@eiu.edu