Last weekend, the Georgetown men’s and women’s track and field teams completed an arduous but successful few days of running at the Big East Indoor Tournament Championship. These victories provide confidence and motivation as the team looks forward to the NCAA Championship, which begins on March 9 in Nampa, Idaho, at the Jackson Indoor Track.
The women are led by Emily Infeld, who won three Big East titles during her races earlier this season. The senior has high hopes for the Hoyas in the NCAA Championship after this past weekend, saying the team thrives off Associate Head Coach Chris Miltenberg’s strategy.
“We have continued training hard and keeping our normal training routine,” she said. “Coach [Miltenberg] has been great at teaching us to treat this as any normal meet.”
Though they didn’t win the Indoor Championship like the women, the men’s team also raced well in the Big East Championship. The runners placed in the top 10 in many of the individual categories against top competitors, ultimately placing them eighth overall with 42.5 total points.
Director Patrick Henner, for one, said he is excited for the upcoming meet. “I think we’re putting out a great team,” he said. “We just want to go out there and race well and compete, and if we do that then we’ll have a good outcome.”
Like Miltenberg, Henner will not be changing the Hoyas’ strategy before Nationals.
“We’re just doing standard-type training that we would do this time of year regardless,” he said. “[Our team] has proven great results, so we won’t really change anything.”
Despite the strong competition in the Big East, the Blue and Grey are in for their toughest test next weekend, facing off against other top teams at the NCAA Championship. Miltenberg and Henner agree that University of Washington will be a tough contestant to beat for their teams. Henner mentioned Oregon as another top contender, and Miltenberg noted BYU.
Infeld added Tennessee and Stanford to that list, and also noted Big East rival Villanova. The Wildcats placed third overall in the Big East Championship with a total of 89.5 points, while their men’s team placed fourth overall with 83 points.
“There are so many great teams and individuals,” Infield said. “There is such great competition throughout the NCAA and it should be an exciting race, and close for a few teams.”
Anybody who has a team [in the NCAA championship] is going to be very good,” Henner added. “What we have to focus on is what we do every day and I think if we do that, we’ll have a great outcome.”
