With fewer than three days to go before the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships, head track coach Erik Jenkins has his team working hard at doing nothing.
“We’ve raced hard and trained hard up to this point to get ready for the indoor championships,” Jenkins said. “We are just trying to rest and make sure we are happy and healthy, and that’s about all you can do at this point.”
The men’s and women’s track and field teams head to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championship meet Saturday and Sunday.
The men’s team is looking to improve on last year’s third-place finish. They have not won an indoor championship since joining the Sun Belt.
The men’s team holds the top spot in the conference in five events. Among the individuals atop the conference is junior Matt Taitt, who holds the top spot in both the shotput and the weight throw.
Taitt’s teammate, sophomore Brian Soverns, who is second in the conference in both events, said they have big plans for the championships.
“A while back, me and Matt decided we want to get first and second in both events in the conference,” Soverns said. “This would let us get the maximum amount of points between the two of us that we could to really help the team.”
The women’s team is competing for its third consecutive Sun Belt Indoor Championship.
“It’s going to be really tough this year, because teams are definitely gunning for us,” senior Jessica Delaunay said. “But we’re so mentally and physically strong that we are ready for it and ready to keep it going for a while.”
The Sun Belt released a coaches poll Tuesday to predict who would win the championships.
On the women’s side, Western narrowly edged Middle Tennessee State as the coaches’ favorite for the championship.
The men’s poll saw another close finish between the Toppers and the Blue Raiders. This time MTSU narrowly edged out Western as favorite going into the meet.
Jenkins said he doesn’t pay much attention to the outcome of such polls.
“The polls don’t mean anything. Throw all of that out,” Jenkins said. “I don’t care if you have a world record from the previous day, you can step on the track a couple hours later or the next day and get beat.”
Reach Chris Acree at sports@chherald.com.
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