Rockets compete at BG opener

The University of Toledo women’s track and field team had a solid, if unspectacular, showing at their firstmeet at last Saturday’s Bowling Green Opener.

The Rockets finished fifth out of six teams, ahead of IPFW but behind Bowling Green State University, Western Michigan University, Miami of Ohio, and Ball State.

UT’s silver lining at the event, however, came in the form of two participants.

Junior Theresa Warsecke finished with the best mile time, coming in at 5:00.39 while junior Alexa Jarrett won the pole vault with a height of 3.85.

The pair of performances highlighted an otherwise inconsistent day for the Rockets in the early season meet. Michelle Davis finished second in the 400 meter dash and Lexis Williams finished second in the 200 meter dash.

“I think it was an ok performance overall,” said UT head coach Linh Nguyen. “We had some bright spots and some things that need work. We had just gotten back a couple days before from break, so I think it was a fair meet overall.

“Most of the girls were home over break with no indoor facilities to train with. This is really just able to tell us where we are now and where we need to go from here.”

For Nguyen and his team, early season meets such as the Bowling Green Opener are all about progress.

“The meet before Christmas break at Eastern Michigan was really the meet for some of the younger girls to work some of the kinks out,” Jarrett said. “This meet was more like a showcase of the work they had put in.”

A couple of Rockets, such as Jarrett and Warsecke, truly took advantage of the showcase.

“It’s always great to win,” Nguyen said. “Having Alexa and Theresa win were obviously highlights of the day.”

Winning and chemistry seem to go hand in hand in sports. For Warsecke, the race she won was also one she enjoyed.

“It was fun,” Warsecke said. “Julia (Pusateri) and I ran that race together, and we also do a lot of workouts together, so it was nice running with a teammate.”

Warsecke wasn’t the only one to have fun in the event she won.

“It was a pretty cool feeling,” said Jarrett on her own victory. “I trained really hard over break and have been for a while now. I believe the skills I’ve developed training out of season, are going to help carry me in season.”

There are steps you take before you reach the top and the Rockets recognize that.

“We have a really good team,” Warsecke said. “If we practice hard we should do well.”

Progress is all well and good, but eventually it needs to translate into production.

“We want to get better in individual events to where all the girls can pick up points in MAC competition,” Nguyen said. “With Alexa setting a school record, we hope to get some points out of pole vaulting. We want to be able to get the program to a point where it’s well rounded and we get points from every event.”

The Rockets know in track and field, good individual performances can help create a good team.

“I want to be able to get my jump to 13.6 (feet) or four meters,” said Jarrett. “Continue to train hard and practice more. Listening to coach for cues on jumping so I can perfect my jump.

“If we do those things, good things will happen for us.”