WALNUT, Calif.—Two weeks ago, the Northwestern State track and field teams traveled to the East coast for the Florida Relays and posted some national-caliber marks.
Now, many NSU athletes are on the West coast for a pair of meets in the state of California.
NSU heads to the Mt. San Antonio College Relays (Mt. SAC) and Bryan Clay Invitational with each being a two-day meet beginning today.
The meets give the teams another chance to see some of the best athletes in the country with this time being against a number of schools on the left coast.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these student-athletes,” head coach Mike Heimerman said. “I bet 90 percent of them have never been to California. Coach (Adam) Pennington want to give the kids an experience every two years because we have many athletes for only two seasons, so we want to give them an experience during those two years here.
“Being at two meets, we will be able to get multiple competitions. It gets these players used to the travel since we’ll be going to Kentucky for regionals and then hopefully Oregon for nationals. We’ll be able to do some site-seeing in California and be able to see the Santa Monica Pier. A lot of these kids have never been west of Texas, so it is an experience and that is what we’re trying to do. They come out here and bust their butts every day and do good work in the classroom, so we reward them.”
The running events at the Mt. SAC Relays start with the women’s 4×100 relays today at 1 p.m., while the women’s high jump kicks off the field events at 11 a.m.
At the Bryan Clay Invitational, the track events start at 9 a.m. with the 1,000-meter run on the men’s side today and the field events start at 1 p.m. with the women’s hammer throw.
In addition to the meets in California, some are competing closer to home, taking part in the Jim Mize Invitational on the campus of Louisiana Tech.
That meet takes place today with the men’s javelin kicking the meet off at 9 a.m., while the track events start at noon with the women’s 4×100 relay.
Due to spring break, the last time many of the NSU athletes competed was at the Florida Relays, a meet in which the sprinters excelled against some top competition.
To show how sensational NSU was at the Florida Relays, of the 12 events the school leads the Southland Conference in, six of those top marks were set in Florida. It was even better for the sprinters, as of the seven leaders in the conference on the track, five of them were recorded in Florida.
“Coach Adam (Pennington) has done a phenomenal job with these kids,” Heimerman said. “They really buy into what he is saying and they do really well. Every day in practice it is like being at a meet because they are so deep at every event that it is a competition every day, even at practice.”
Following the meets, NSU heads back to Baton Rouge for the LSU Alumni Gold, a one-day event that takes place April 25 for the second-to-last outdoor meet prior to the SLC Championships from May 14-16.
