With the Mid-American Conference Championships a week away, coach Clay Calkins isn't taking any chances.
The Bobcats will host their second meet of the year - the Ohio Open - this weekend. The first gun sounds at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Goldsberry Track. Most of the team's top athletes will not compete, as they will rest for the MAC Championships.
(The Ohio Open) is not a high-intensity meet
Calkins said. We'll have that at the MAC Championships.
Calkins has rested his top runners on a few occasions, keeping them fresh for bigger meets.
Last week, the Bobcats raced at the Jesse Owens Classic in Columbus. Many of the team's top athletes failed to achieve their season bests, despite competition from some of the best teams in the nation. The weather may have played a role in the performances.
It rained all day Friday and it got cold at night Calkins said. It wasn't good conditions at all.
However, the weather was the same for all the athletes, so everybody had to deal with it, he said.
Junior Cathy Udeani slipped during her first attempt in the high jump, hitting her knee on the ground. Calkins pulled her from the event shortly after.
We made a decision to hold off on further jumps to reduce the risk of injury he said.
Despite the less than stellar performances last week, Calkins had no loss of confidence in his team.
I'm confident in the team
he said. The performances weren't bad
they just weren't as good as we wanted them to be.
Ohio still has multiple athletes close to qualifying for the NCAA Mideast Regional meet in three weeks. With much of the team resting this week, the MAC Championships will be their last chance to qualify.
I hope the athletes can learn from what they did at the meet last week and improve on their performances coming in to the MAC meet. Calkins said.
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Vince Nairn
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