dave Davis / NL Freshman Jessica Houston lets the shot put fly during a recent practice. Houston won the discus at the Linfield Icebreaker March 6 despite only practicing with the discus taped to her hand.   dave Davis / NL Senior sprinter Shanette Harper practices over a short set of hurdles around the ice rink in the Wells Fargo Sports Complex. Despite practice limitations, UAA’s track athletes have found success this season.

Lack of track doesn’t hold Seawolves back

By Brian Singler
Northern Light

The sprinters can’t wear their spikes. The discus thrower can’t throw her discus. The long-distance runners have nowhere to run. Essentially, they’re a track and field team without a track or a field.

Yet for the all the hardships the University of Alaska Anchorage track team has to deal with while trying to train during Alaska winters, their opponents are quickly learning that their biggest hardship may be dealing with the Seawolves.

That’s at least if they continue to perform like they did at their first meet of the season, where UAA won four events outright and placed four athletes in the top five at the Linfield Icebreaker in McMinnville, Ore.

But hey, the Seawolves know all about ice. It’s currently burying the only track they have to train on.

“We all want spring,” head coach Michael Friess said. “But the way we’re running, maybe we shouldn’t have spring.”

At the Icebreaker, Stacy Edwards won the 10,000 meters and senior Nate Normandin took the 3,000-meter steeplechase. But freshman Jessica Houston made perhaps the most surprising contribution, tossing the discus 134 feet to win her first collegiate event by more than four feet.

The feat is surprising because the former Dimond High track star hadn’t thrown a discus all season. She can’t because the team doesn’t have a throwing cage. A discus would end up lost in the snow or buried in the wall of the Wells Fargo Sports Complex if she ever did let one fly.

“We tried to set up a net for me but that didn’t work,” Houston said. “Actually, I still surprised myself. My goal was to get past 120. I wasn’t going out there thinking I was going to get 140.”

Her throw was only one foot, 10 inches short of her career-best while at Dimond. It also equaled the second-longest throw in the entire Great Northwest Athletic Conference last season.

So how can she chuck it so far when she can’t even thrown in practice? Well, she can credit creative training techniques for that.

“I tape it in my hand with athletic tape,” Houston said. “I can still go through the footwork and the motion but sometimes it’s hard to get the feel. It’s definitely an adaptation but my body knows what it feels like.”

All Houston has to rely on is her muscle memory from five years of throwing and the new strength and conditioning program Friess has set up for her.

“Part of me as a coach likes the adversity that we have and our athletes need that,” Friess said. “It forces them to rise to the challenges.”

No one may be more challenged by a lack of a track than UAA’s sprinters, who used the Linfield course to feel spikes under their feet for the first time this season. So, far senior Michelle Bartleman, Diana Gordon and Shanette Harper have been forced to use “waffles,” which are sprinting shoes sans spikes.

The trio finished anywhere from eighth to 14th at the Icebreaker in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. In all the races, winners were determined by hundredths of a second. There’s nothing the trio can do to change the reality of the hard, unforgiving concrete around the ice rink in the Sports Complex where they train- and there is no athletic tape solution for them.

“The sprinters are at more of a disadvantage,” Friess said. “I am trying to overcome them. Obviously, the ultimate goal is an indoor track facility but it’s still all about how fit you are and your mental approach.”

Mentality is something Friess doesn’t have to worry about for the long-distance runners, they are doing just fine. Including Edwards’ and Normandin’s victories, Lindsay Krous and Aaron Dickson ran to top-three finishes in the men’s and women’s 1,500 meters and Drew Dickson and Todd List finished first and second in the men’s 5,000 meters, respectively.

And they haven’t seen a track yet, either. As a matter of fact, they haven’t really done much besides run in place on a brand-new treadmill that can reach speeds of 16 miles an hour, the equivalent of a 3:45 mile.

“I almost prefer training on a treadmill to training on a track because I can define a tempo and pace for that athlete. All they have to do is keep up with it,” Friess said. “That is exceptionally difficult to do on a track. But a treadmill stays at that speed; it doesn’t get tired (like a runner).

“It forces them to do things they don’t normally do. It’s one of the reasons our distance runners are reaching levels they never have before. They’re exceptionally fit.”

While most of UAA’s counterparts in the GNAC are training outside on tracks, sprinting with spikes on, and actually throwing discuses, the Seawolves aren’t crying about it. In fact, they see the difficulties of training in Alaska as a good thing.

“I see it as an advantage,” Houston said. “We’re training in worse conditions than our competition. We try to figure out ways to help each other out. We have a bond other teams don’t. They don’t have the obstacles we do.”