When the Illinois State track and field team travels to Ames, Iowa this weekend for the Iowa State Invitational, they will face their biggest challenge of the season.
The meet, which takes place Friday and Saturday, will be the Redbirds final competition as a team before the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in two weeks. Head coach Elvis Forde is not planning to take a full squad to Charleston next weekend for the Friday Night Invite. He will use the Iowa State meet as a chance to see if his team is ready to handle the workload, as several athletes will compete in multiple events this weekend.
The kids who run in the longer races will probably only run in one event, Forde said. But for the kids in the shorter events, were going to see how well they can perform doing multiple tasks.
One of those individuals doing multiple tasks this weekend is JaRod Tobler, who will see time in the 60 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the long and triple jump. Forde also plans to use Tobler in all four events at the conference championships.
JaRod is going to be a big key to our success, Forde said. But we have a number of guys who are going to have to perform well. We have no room for error.
Pierre Woods will see time in multiple events as well, including the high jump, 60-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash.
On the womens side, Cherise Devers and Lian Lucas will continue to run the 60 and 200 dashes respectively, while newcomer Abby Heinhold will see time in the 400 and pole vault.
Were starting to get on track to become one of the conferences best, Forde said. The season started off slow, but over the last couple of weeks, weve started to find our niche. It comes down to each athlete and how much they want to be a champion.
One area of the program that has seen an enormous amount of success this year has been the throws squad. Brian Krantz was named the MVC Male Field Athlete of the Week for his performance at the Health Alliance Invite in Champaign last Saturday, while Latisha Johnson has earned athlete of the week recognition twice. Johnson has already broken the school and Valley records in the shot put twice this season, while Rhett Hillard was named Prairie Farms/MVC Scholar Athlete of the Week back in January.
The throws have done extremely well, Forde said. Now, the challenge will be to see if all that success will transfer over to the conference meet. They are definitely a key area to our success.
The biggest key to the teams success, according to Forde, is whether or not the athletes have the desire to become champions.
The thrill of winning is enormous and thats something I want the athletes to experience, Forde said. But the athletes have to have a hunger thats so relenting, that theyre constantly ready to step up to a high level and perform. Thats something you really cant coach. The athletes themselves have to decide whether or not they are willing to go above and beyond in order to be successful.
