Eastern’s track and field team has hit the road to head to the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship meet.
The OVC standings for the track meet consist of multiple Eastern men’s and women’s track athletes in the top 30 of their events.
Historically, Eastern has won 62 OVC indoor and outdoor track and field/cross country championships including sweeping the OVC Cross Country Championships last year when the men’s team clinched its 19th OVC Championship.
This will be director of track and field/cross country James Gildon’s first track and field OVC indoor championship with the Panthers.
“I think a lot of optimism this time of year just breeds a different level of track and field,” Gildon said. “It challenges you to kind of rise to the occasion, and so you always kind of reveal yourself at these times a year.”
EIU athletes are breaking school records.
Fifth-year distance runner Adam Swanson is ranked first in the mile and 3K while athletes of the men’s 4×400 have the second fastest time in school history right now.
Multiple other Panthers are also exceeding the top 10 of all time in their events.
“We kind of just put in the work and make sure that we remind ourselves of our why, you know, and we kind of like to read reverse engineer winning, if you will,” Gildon said. “So, we feel like if we’re operating at the highest version of ourselves from a mind-body-spirit perspective, then ultimately, the outcomes take care of themselves, and so we look for that to be no different for this week coming up.”
The men’s team for the Panthers hope to clinch its 20th OVC indoor championship win, and the women’s team hope for its seventh.
With the diversity in different events, a well-rounded track team also benefits from a mix of experienced upperclassmen and newcomers.
“I think the unique thing about this team is that it’s balanced,” Gildon said. “We’re gonna see a lot of contributions from all areas in the program. So, I’m just really excited to kind of see each group kind of rise to the occasion.”
Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com.
