Not finished yet
On Jan. 31, the Javelina women’s 4×400 relay team broke the previous record time with a new time of 3:45.75. Although that wasn’t it for the Hogs. The very next day on Feb. 1, the men’s 4×400 relay team broke the previous record time of 3:13.73 set in 2005 with the new record time of 3:11.80.
“I think they run well together. They work hard and they want to run hard for each other, and they know they have a chance to be one of the top teams at nationals. So that motivates them to run hard for each other and get out there and perform well,” said Ryan Dall, head coach for track and field.
The women’s team consists of freshman Sakara Wade, sophomore Onieka Brissett, senior Vitiana Robert and senior Cynai Christopher. The women’s record time is also the 13th fastest time set in Division II this season.
“I think we push each other really hard in practice. If someone feels like they’re struggling, we’re still like ‘keep going’ and encouraging, and just trying to stay positive, even though at times it can be a lot,” Wade said.
In their first race as a team on Jan. 25, at FasTrak Athletix Collegiate Challenge in Houston, the team ran a time of 3:47.03, not knowing that in a few days their names would be in the record books.
On Feb. 1, the men’s team woke up ready to work. After seeing their fellow women Javelinas’ team break the school record they knew they had to double it.
“Early on in the season we had a couple of injuries that we had to work through and just get the right four guys that were healthy and ready to go. Then once we got going, then I knew we would have a good chance to run really fast,” Dall said.
On Jan. 10, at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational in Houston the team didn’t have all four guys to start the season. In the first meet they were split. Senior Taylor Chaney and senior Sterling Riles were on the Hogs team A that placed sixth in the race. While junior Cody Fountain was on the B team and junior Tony Benitez was dealing with a groin injury he suffered in December.
Even in the second meet of January, the team didn’t run together at the FasTrak Athletix Collegiate Challenge with Chaney being the one who sat out this event.
Then came the Boston Terrier Classic. After seeing the women’s team break the record the day before it was time for the men’s team’s first race together this season.
“We have some chemistry. The guys that I ran the 4×4 with I’ve been around for a while before college. So, we just got chemistry,” Chaney said.
After the race was over and seeing the final time and seeing they broke a record, Riles said, “It wasn’t that surprising. Our guys have been putting in the work every day. We had a good year last year. That was just something we are used to.”
Breaking a record at any time of the year is a huge accomplishment. Although, that isn’t all our Javelinas are after.
“I just told them in our team meeting our biggest goals are still ahead of us like the conference meet,” Dall said. “We want to be conference Champions, and those relay teams want to be the best teams in the conference and win the Conference Champion in relay. Also, they want to go to Nationals. So, our biggest goals are still in front of us.”
Lastly you can tell the message was made loud and clear as Christopher said, “After the event we were honestly excited, we didn’t think we were going to break the record, but we did, and that’s just one record of many. We plan on breaking the same record again for conference in about two weeks. So that’s our goal.”