Women’s track meets goals

Goal oriented.

That’s how Shonna Sherrell, a senior hurdler describes the Missouri Southern women’s indoor track and field team.

“We’ve stepped it up more this year,” Sherrell said. “It seems like we all know where we want to get.”

“We all seem pretty pumped,” said Sara Mueller, sophomore high jumper. “Everybody is pretty excited.”

In the first two meets of the indoor season, the Lions have already had four individuals qualify for a provisional in five events. Junior Danee Jones has qualified for a provisional in the shot put and weight throws, senior Mary Still in the 400-meter dash, Mueller in the high jump and senior Melissa Turner in the poll vault.

“The way we get our national championships, unlike a lot of other sports is you don’t compete against a group of teams in your region,” said Patty Vavra, head coach.

“What we do is you have to reach a certain qualifying performance mark, and the provisional mark is the minimum of what you have to do to have a chance to get in the national meet. There is an automatic standard, and if you perform to that standard at any point in the season, you get an automatic meet.”

The team sees it as a nice beginning to a promising season.

“In two weeks time, that’s a nice start to the season,” Vavra said.

“We hope that they continue to get better, and they’ll probably have to do that in order to reach the national championship.”

“I’m hoping to get an automatic bid,” Mueller said, “because a provisional most likely won’t get me into the national meet.”

Being at home for the meet was something that the Lions aren’t taking for granted, either.

“It’s almost an immeasurable advantage,” Vavra said. “Just from the standpoint of it’s also where

you train everyday. Another advantage is that you get to have your parents and your peers here. You can’t take it out of the mix as a motivator for the athletes.”

“You know the turf more,” Mueller said. “It’s not foreign and you feel more comfortable because it’s home. I would say that it helped out.”

“It’s always comfortable to be at home,” Sherrell said. “You know what is expected of you and you have the support around you.”

The Southern track and field teams will next travel to Lawrence, Kan. where they will be competing at the University of Kansas Invitational on Saturday.

“I think we’re going to have a good showing,” Sherrell said. “It’s always good to put our abilities up against other teams’ and see where we stand.”