The men’s and women’s track teams will begin their season this Sunday, Dec. 2 as they travel to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where their second meet will also be held on Jan. 25, 2013.
Head track coach Steve Guymon said he is looking forward to the upcoming season, but as usual the season will present some challenges.
“Last year we had probably the largest team we’ve had in a long time,” Guymon said. “We were coming off of an NCAA Division II South Region championship.
They won that, both men and women. The challenge of this year’s team and last year’s is that the tradition here at Harding is very strong and to live up to that tradition from coach Lloyd and coach Phillips from when before I started coaching. That’s something we always strive to do.”
The team does have several advantages though, according to Guymon. Former Harding track coaches Ted Lloyd and Bryan Phillips have come back to the track team to help coach and without their help, Guymon said it would be very difficult. Another advantage this year is that team has been able to add a large number of freshmen.
“Coming into this season we’ve been really fortunate to pick up a lot of freshman,” Guymon said. “The men’s team has always been larger in size and the women’s relatively small, but this year the women’s doubled in size.”
Guymon also said that although this year’s team is quite a bit younger than last year’s, the freshmen help bring energy to the group and help energize the seniors, which the seniors profit from.
Junior Kristen Celsor, who holds the record in high jump for the university and is also a player for the Lady Bisons basketball team, said she is really looking forward to the track season.
“For me it’s a little different because I do both sports,” Celsor said. “I have basketball practice every day and then I have track, so there’s the factor of being tired. It’s really nice to have something to change it up though. I love track because it’s kind of a break for me and something I really love to do. … I’m really excited to get to know all of the new people and just ready to get out there.”
According to Guymon, Harding should expect to see positive things from its track team this year.
“I’ve been with the cross-country team all fall, but with the track team, their attitude, work ethic that they have had in preseason dictates to me that we will have a very, very good track season,” Guymon said. “I think this is going to be a very fun, exciting year. We just have a good group of kids.”
