Season Primer: Indoor Track & Field Commences Season at UAB

Friday, January 10

Birmingham, Ala.

All Day

Florida Atlantic

Blazer Invitational

1/9/2020 12:11:00 PM | Women's XC/Track & Field

Florida Atlantic at Blazer and Vulcan Invitational
Event Details	Dates: Friday, Jan. 10 - Saturday, Jan. 11 Location: Birmingham, Ala. (Birmingham Crossplex at UAB)
Event Coverage	Live Results: Blazer Invite \| Vulcan Invite Twitter: @FAU_XC_Track Instagram: @FAUXC.TF Facebook: FAU XC/Track & Field

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University women's track and field team has been putting in the work all offseason in preparation for the first indoor track & field meet of the season. Indoor season officially commences tomorrow, as the Owls will participate in the Blazer Invitational hosted at UAB. The weekend will end at the Vulcan Invitational, which is also hosted at the Birmingham Crossplex in North-Central Alabama.

Head coach Alex Smolka credits his team for putting in the work during Christmas break. This season, he hopes to put people in the position to score points for the team.

"For us in the middle distance events like the 800 meters and the mile, we would like to get people to finals," said Smolka. "For the distance medley relay, we would like to get as high as we did last year, where we finished fourth. In longer events like the 3K and 5K, we want to give people the chance to compete for those top places."

Smolka's group had a successful cross country season, tallying their best finish at conference championships since joining Conference USA in 2013. The team finished eighth overall and saw Madlen Kappeler finish in 16th place, which was enough to put her on the All-C-USA Third Team. The team is hoping to build upon the successful races they had in the fall onto the track.

"This year, I think it's going to be more a lead-by-committee," said Smolka. "We don't have a clear frontrunner anymore, but we do have some other people that as a group can score points and help us on the team aspect this year."

When it comes to the sprint and jump groups, associate head coach Willie Randolph has seen positive things from his team during the offseason. With the transition from fall training, he is helping his student-athletes focus on executing one thing at a time.

"We want everybody to get personal bests and to move in the right direction to score a lot of points," said Randolph. "If everyone takes in individually what they need to do not only from the fall but going into indoor season one meet at a time, they should have personal bests when it matters."

The squad has several new faces, but also brings back a core veteran group with upperclassmen, such as Ana-Catherine Wasser, Vershae Quinn and Cara Simpson. Wasser is coming off last season having qualified for the NCAA East Regional in the 400 meter hurdles, where she finished in 40th place in the first round (1:01.91). The team has also welcomed Lyric Schmalz, a graduate transfer from Jacksonville, as well as several newcomers, who are also looking to make an impact right away on the team and program.

"We are focusing on getting personal bests to help the team and being able to enjoy the time they have out there and the process, which is something student-athletes sometimes forget," said Randolph. "I call them the microwave generation. They want things hot and ready right now and sometimes you need to take the time to cook a slow, well-seasoned meal for it to actually taste really good. Right now, we are focusing on a slow process and the process is going to be ready when it needs to be ready."

The track & field team will look for slow and steady steps taken in the right direction in hopes of making noise in C-USA this season and for years to come.

Season Preview Video

Competing Schools

Blazer Invitational

Alabama
Auburn
Bethune-Cookman
FIU
Jackson State
Lipscomb
Mississippi State
Ole Miss
South Florida
Southern Miss
Tennessee Tech
UAB

Vulcan Invitational

Alcorn State
Arkansas State
Bethune-Cookman
Emmanuel (Ga.)
Emory
FIU
Harding
Jackson State
Lipscomb
Meridian CC
Mississippi University for Women
Montevallo
North Greenville
Savannah State
Shorter
South Florida
Southern Indiana
Texas State
Troy
UAB

Meet Schedules

Blazer Invitational
Vulcan Invitational

Last Year at Blazer and Vulcan Invite

The Owls got the season started on the right foot last year at the Blazer and Vulcan invites. Searra Woods recorded a third place finish in the 500-meter dash (1:17.15), which became a new school record. Lauren Macon closed in on sixth place (19:34.74) in the 5000-meter run, while Mikaela Jonsson took ninth in the 1000-meter (3:01.19) and Megan Giovanniello finished ninth in the 1-mile run (5:21.32). At the Vulcan Invite, Giovanniello also set a new personal best in the 800-meters with a time of 2:17.51 for fifth place, which became the 11th best time in school history.

Owls on Social Media

For complete coverage of the women's track & field team, follow along on Twitter (@FAU_XC_Track), Instagram (@FAUXC.TF) and Facebook.