Northwestern University Athletics
#B1GCats Open Outdoor Track Season Friday At SF Distance Carnival
3/31/2016 8:41:00 PM | Women's Cross Country & Track
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The Wildcats open the 2016 outdoor track season on Friday, April 1, at the San Francisco Distance Carnival, hosted by San Francisco State University at Cox Stadium. Seven Northwestern runners will compete in a pair of distance events in the first day of the annual two-day event.
LIVE RESULTS - 2016 San Francisco Distance Carnival
Elena Barham, a senior who led the 'Cats during both the cross country and indoor track seasons, will be the lone Northwestern representative in the 10k event. Senior Allison Jacobsen, juniors Jena Pianin and Ellen Schmitz, and sophomores Sara Coffey, Brooke Pigneri and Isabel Seidel will compete in the 5,000.
The Distance Carnival features teams from all three divisions as well as teams from NAIA and junior colleges, there will be schools from 29 states, including teams from Mexico and Canada competing this weekend at Cox Stadium. All told, there will be over 1,700 athletes competing in over 2,400 events. The 2016 Distance Carnival is the largest in the event's history, surpassing last year's record-breaking meet.
"We're excited to open up with this meet because it's where some good things can happen, and where the women can build confidence going into the rest of the outdoor season," said head coach 'AHavahla Haynes. "Ultimately what I think we can do is we can get really close to some NCAA Regional qualifying times. It will be a big field, just because of overflow from the Stanford Invitational. Which is great, because generally the rule is that more bodies leads to a faster race. "
Haynes has been impressed with the progress of her team over the course of her first season at the helm.
"I think Elena Barham has done a great job in terms of her consistency. Jena Pianin has worked incredibly hard. Sara Coffey has definitely stepped up from where she was as a freshman, and so has Isabel Seidel, especially coming back from a stress fracture in the fall."
Perhaps the biggest thing working in Northwestern's favor at this point in the year, are that the health and fitness of the team are peaking.
"I think we're probably the healthiest we've been all year, the outstanding issues are things we can stay on top of," said Haynes. "In terms of fitness, we are probably the most fit the group has been since they arrived on campus in August."
But this weekend's event is just the beginning of the Wildcats outdoor track schedule, and Haynes is eager to see the gains she and assistant coach Audrey Huth have witnessed in training pay off with gains in competition over the next few months.
"I would like to see most of our women have a personal best in anywhere from the 1500 through the 10k depending on what people are running. Ultimately I'd like to see us have some Regional qualifiers, hopefully two-to-four women. Our training indicates that we're capable, it's just determining whether we're confident enough to put our heads and noses in the race."
Historical evidence suggests that the Wildcats 2016 outdoor track season will be more competitive than recent years, for one big reason: the looming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
"Typically in an Olympic year there will be more people opting to run their outdoor seasons because they're trying to get qualifying times," said Haynes. "There will be a lot of races set up with pacers, and those people are out smashing a pace for everybody because the leader of the peloton rarely wins. Essentially the meet director puts someone out front to make sure the pace is set, so that other people in the field don't have to do the work. Year-to-year, NCAA qualifying times are pretty consistent, within one or two seconds. Olympic year qualifying times are generally faster, not by too much, because you're obviously working with a finite amount of space and time and physicality, but generally it will swing three or four seconds."
LIVE RESULTS - 2016 San Francisco Distance Carnival
Elena Barham, a senior who led the 'Cats during both the cross country and indoor track seasons, will be the lone Northwestern representative in the 10k event. Senior Allison Jacobsen, juniors Jena Pianin and Ellen Schmitz, and sophomores Sara Coffey, Brooke Pigneri and Isabel Seidel will compete in the 5,000.
The Distance Carnival features teams from all three divisions as well as teams from NAIA and junior colleges, there will be schools from 29 states, including teams from Mexico and Canada competing this weekend at Cox Stadium. All told, there will be over 1,700 athletes competing in over 2,400 events. The 2016 Distance Carnival is the largest in the event's history, surpassing last year's record-breaking meet.
"We're excited to open up with this meet because it's where some good things can happen, and where the women can build confidence going into the rest of the outdoor season," said head coach 'AHavahla Haynes. "Ultimately what I think we can do is we can get really close to some NCAA Regional qualifying times. It will be a big field, just because of overflow from the Stanford Invitational. Which is great, because generally the rule is that more bodies leads to a faster race. "
Haynes has been impressed with the progress of her team over the course of her first season at the helm.
"I think Elena Barham has done a great job in terms of her consistency. Jena Pianin has worked incredibly hard. Sara Coffey has definitely stepped up from where she was as a freshman, and so has Isabel Seidel, especially coming back from a stress fracture in the fall."
Perhaps the biggest thing working in Northwestern's favor at this point in the year, are that the health and fitness of the team are peaking.
"I think we're probably the healthiest we've been all year, the outstanding issues are things we can stay on top of," said Haynes. "In terms of fitness, we are probably the most fit the group has been since they arrived on campus in August."
But this weekend's event is just the beginning of the Wildcats outdoor track schedule, and Haynes is eager to see the gains she and assistant coach Audrey Huth have witnessed in training pay off with gains in competition over the next few months.
"I would like to see most of our women have a personal best in anywhere from the 1500 through the 10k depending on what people are running. Ultimately I'd like to see us have some Regional qualifiers, hopefully two-to-four women. Our training indicates that we're capable, it's just determining whether we're confident enough to put our heads and noses in the race."
Historical evidence suggests that the Wildcats 2016 outdoor track season will be more competitive than recent years, for one big reason: the looming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
"Typically in an Olympic year there will be more people opting to run their outdoor seasons because they're trying to get qualifying times," said Haynes. "There will be a lot of races set up with pacers, and those people are out smashing a pace for everybody because the leader of the peloton rarely wins. Essentially the meet director puts someone out front to make sure the pace is set, so that other people in the field don't have to do the work. Year-to-year, NCAA qualifying times are pretty consistent, within one or two seconds. Olympic year qualifying times are generally faster, not by too much, because you're obviously working with a finite amount of space and time and physicality, but generally it will swing three or four seconds."
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Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country & Track
/ Women's Cross Country & Track
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/ Women's Cross Country & Track
/ Women's Cross Country & Track
/ Women's Cross Country & Track
/ Women's Cross Country & Track
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