Outdoor track teams prepare
for Purdue Open
 By
Greg Doddridge
Staff Writer
The weather — the outside atmosphere —
is obviously the biggest difference between indoor and outdoor track.
But now, here comes the irony.
"Most of the schools coming to the open this weekend
are northern schools that are coming south for good weather," said women's
track coach Ben Paolillo with a chuckle.
Fourteen schools are sending athletes to West Lafayette
for today and Saturday's Purdue Open at the Rankin Track Stadium. Competition
at the non-scored meet starts at 3 p.m. today with the action resuming
at 9 a.m. Saturday. The northern schools include Notre Dame, Valparaiso,
Marquette and the directional Michigan schools — Eastern, Western
and Central. Iowa and Indiana are the only Big Ten schools competing.
The women's team finished in the top 10 nationally
in the team power rankings and assistant coach Steve Callaway said the
ranking shows the relative strength of Purdue's team versus other teams.
He wants to see a well-rounded outdoor team develop.
"Doing well at the Big Ten Championship is, of
course, very important, but we want to try to take kids to the national
level also," said Callaway.
Paolillo said he has the same goals for the outdoor
team as for the indoor team. His mindset has not changed.
"My goal for a team is to always maximize what
we are capable of doing and I felt indoor we did that," said Paolillo.
The women's indoor track team won its first championship
on Feb. 25 of this year by using a bit of strategy.
"We were able to position our athletes in events
where we knew they could be successful," said Paolillo.
He said that same strategy is being employed for
the outdoor season. He said he knows the top events where the team can
get points. There are three or four events were he is looking for bonus
points to get the team an outdoor track championship. There are several
additional events during outdoor track that complicate the situation.
The hammer throw, javelin, discus, steeplechase,
the 100- and 400-meter hurdles and the 10,000-meter run are events not
seen indoors.
The men's team is looking to see a net improvement
of one between their indoor season and outdoor season, and they have
thus far. After placing second in the Big Ten indoor championships,
the team's goal is to win the Big Ten outdoor title.
Assistant coach Lissa Olson said that when the
team went to Arizona for some relays over Spring Break, the athletes
that went relaxed, had fun and hit new personal bests. The team as a
whole has stayed on a training progression.
"There is about a week-long break in the training
because we think it is really important mentally and physically to have
a break between the seasons so that they come out refreshed," said Olson.
But the team, outside of the break, has been practicing
for the outdoor season. According to Olson, one of the challenges of
outdoor track is shaking off the notion that the best performances should
be saved for warm weather meets. She does that by emphasizing that during
bad weather, someone still has to win.
"If it is raining, it is raining in every lane.
If they are running into a headwind, it's windy in lane 1 but no wind
in lane 3. So the person that fights over that is going to be the one
that is successful," said Olson.
Purdue often schedules meets in warm weather locations.
"Sometimes we go to those meets far away to get
different competition," said Paolillo.
He said the reason is not to put the athletes in
a warmer environment just for the benefit of the weather. This weekend,
he is looking forward to good weather and a solid meet.
"This meet this weekend has some good quality to
it," said Paolillo. "Our track is fast. If the weather cooperates, you
may see some pretty decent times and marks."
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