On Saturday, Mar 29, the Lindenwood women’s track team competed at the Billiken Invitational at Saint Louis University.
It was only the team’s second outdoor meet of the season, as the team competed in the Wash U Distance Carnival the previous day. But Lindenwood had many achievements in the meet, including a total of eight competitors placing top five in their events, and athletes such as junior Kinsey Dueker who received fourth place and just under 15 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles finals hopes the team can continue that same drive all through the season.
“We had a strong indoor season, so keeping that momentum for outdoor,” Dueker said. “Personally for me I feel like I’m going to have a really good season as well.”
The Lindenwood track team has experienced a slew of changes this year compared to previous years, especially after losing the men’s team for this season, along with coaching changes in conjunction to the men’s team being ineffective. Same with new athletes and new members of the team as a whole. But the Lions were able to adapt to those changes during indoor track season, and have used that experience to prepare for the outdoor season.
“It’s a rebuilding year as indoor went really well for this team, it’ll be exciting adding new events that aren’t a part of indoor track,” assistant coach Vicente Blanco said. “Even though we had indoor season, it’s another rust bust. There’s events such as javelin going on for the first time, hammer’s a little bit different than indoor, and then you’re dealing with a much bigger track and slightly different events.”
Overall, in spite of all the changes the team has experienced this year, they are still confident in a successful season. The Lions’ most successful events of the Billiken Invitational were the 100-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, the 100-meter hurdles, the discus, javelin, and shot put. Lindenwood is looking to take those achievements, confidence, passion, talent, and hard work with them into every meet they go into.
“Goals for the team are definitely to place top three at the OVC Championship, but hopefully we can get first or second,” Dueker said. “But personally, I want to score an open event at Conference. I want to get podium, hopefully first, obviously that is always a goal. I already have a school record, though I hope to add onto that.”
