 "Photo: Courtesy UMKC Athletics")
UMKC faces an unforeseen challenge in its next meet - showing up with no official qualifying times or marks.
The Roos went to the Missouri Relays on March 27 and 28, ready to establish their credentials.
"It's just one of those meets that lets us know what we need to work on," Head Coach Shameika McField said. "Our first outdoor meet at Emporia State on March 1 was cancelled because of bad weather. Right now, we're going against the grain with Mother Nature."
The meet started at 11 a.m., but the bulk of the events were scheduled for the following day. The competition was officially cancelled at 4 p.m., with just a handful of events having taken place.
"It was just so cold," McField said. "The weather was just getting bad. A lot of teams were just leaving, taking off because of the bad weather. I just told the guys to go through the motions of running and not worry so much about the times."
The UMKC Track and Field team will be competing April 1-4, at the Texas Relays in Austin, but will face an additional hurdle.
"They're all going to go in with no times, no marks, which can draw bad lanes," McField said. "But I figure a good competitor can compete in any lane."
She said the team trains with the possibility of bad lane-draws in mind.
"I try to tell them not to think too much about the lanes and just focus on the race."
Ending up in the seventh or eighth lane can be tough on longer distance races with curves. It takes a practiced eye to judge pacing, but McField said her athletes, for the most part, were well seasoned enough.
"For something on the straightaway, being in the middle is good," she said. "You can see everyone else in your peripheral vision."
In the few events that did take place, Kimoya Hariott competed in her first meet as a Kangaroo and took first in women's javelin with a mark of 121-01 (36.90m).
The freshman's mark lands her fourth in the UMKC outdoor record books as the fourth best performance in school history in women's javelin.
Anthony Boyer qualified for the men's 110-meter finals with his fifth place prelim time of 14.88, and Aubrey Frederking also competed in javelin and finished ninth with a mark of 91-08 (27.95m).
"It was a little windy, but the javelin did go well," McField said.
The coach was hoarse, fighting a bought with bronchitis from the previous week, but still managed to lay down her team philosophy.
"They need to go out and fun," she said.
The Roos will compete next April 4 at the Emporia State Relays in Kansas. The starting gun is set for 10 a.m., weather permitting.
dsimons@unews.com
