Certain individuals have shined brightly for the Ball State women's track team this outdoor season, particularly at the Hillsdale Relays on Friday and Saturday.
However, despite these performances, a team effort is necessary if the Cardinals hope to place high in the Mid-American Conference Championships on May 13.
"We showed improvement in some areas (at Hillsdale), but I didn't think it was a great overall team effort," head coach Sue Parks said.
BSU added three more NCAA regional qualifiers to their list of five this weekend at Hillsdale.
"(Qualifying for NCAA) shows we have some great individuals on the team and hopefully we can add onto that number," Parks said. "As I've stressed all along, though, we need more than just a few outstanding individuals to be contenders in the MAC. We need to work on having a total team effort."
Ball State, which boasted 13 personal bests at Hillsdale, was able to come out strong Friday, but could not carry that momentum over to Saturday. This becomes an important aspect for the Cards when they compete in the MAC, which is a three-day event.
"We need to compete hard every hour of the meet, not just the first part of the meet. It's something we've struggled with all year having a young team," Parks said.
The long jump was a highlight for the team as freshman Amanda Barnhart took second in the event with her regional-qualifying mark of 20-1.
Meanwhile, sophomore teammate Jennifer McCoy was right behind in third place, and also qualified for the NCAA regional with her jump of 19-11 34.
The third Cardinal to regionally qualify for the NCAA Championships was freshman Rose Lehe, who did so in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a second-place time of 10:51.06.
With so many young athletes putting up outstanding performances, the future could have much in store for the women's track team.
"We've got a great nucleus to really have this program take off in the next few years," Parks said. "The future looks bright, but right now our main concern is what we can do this year and what we can do to get ready to make a run at the MAC."
BSU continue its outdoor season Saturday at Columbus, Ohio in the Jesse Owens Invitational, just two meets away from the MAC Championships.
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