Track and field kicks off season
Jump Start — The Liberty men’s and women’s track and field teams started their seasons off Friday and Saturday with the Liberty Kickoff.
The Liberty Flames track and field team hosts a meet each December in order to prepare for the official season that will take off in January.
The purpose of the meet — which is not a scored meet — is purely diagnostic. The official spring roster is not set and the meet gives coaches one last chance to evaluate their athletes.
“We want to keep people motivated and keep them in training in November before Christmas comes,” coach Brant Tolsma said. “After this meet we will cut the roster from 70 to 55 so I am expecting great efforts.”
The mental aspect of track and field is just important as having the physical ability to perform. A well-conditioned athlete must be prepared for the season now to garner success later.
“Train now and perform now so if there is a bad individual performance it can happen now,” Tolsma said. “I am just telling the team to go out there and give it your best.”
Liberty finished 13th in the nation last year, but expectations for this year are higher.
“I think that we can crack the top 10 this year,” Tolsma said. “I would love to eventually get into the top four yearly.”
With that ambition in mind, the Flames will try to leap from the solid stepping stone set by last year’s squad.
“Our goal this year is to be as good as you can be and to put trust in God to use each one of these kids to their full potential,” Tolsma said.
The men’s squad features an experienced, upper-classman-heavy roster while the women’s squad will field a younger demographic.
“I feel like the girls will have more of a challenge on their hands than the guys will,” Tolsma said. “If the guys can stay healthy I think that they will dominate.”
The Flames will have 15 returning Big South Champions on the team this year, nine men and six women. Sam Chelanga and Josh Edmonds will captain the men, and Rachel Houseknecht and Melinda Bendik will lead the women.