Track team not fazed by cold weather

Tyler Arnholt, a red-shirt senior thrower, participates in the men's weight throw Jan. 21 at the EIU Mega Meet in the Lantz Fieldhouse. (Danny Damiani/The Daily Eastern News)

While some students around Eastern may be taking the two days of canceled classes as an opportunity to sleep in and relax, the Eastern track and field team is still hard at work on preparing for the team's upcoming meet at the Notre Dame Meyo Invite this weekend.

"It feels a lot like high school, because you normally don't get a lot of snow days in college," said red-shirt junior distance runner Megan Gingerich.

Gingerich said she was excited when she heard the news of classes cancelled due to snow at Eastern, where a snow day has not taken place since 2007.

Gingerich said despite the weather conditions, the team will carry on with its regularly scheduled workouts and practice sessions.

"The only major difference is that we won't be able to run outside," Gingerich said.

Gingerich said the team will move its practice to the indoor facilities or workout at the Student Recreation Center.

With the Notre Dame Meyo Invite still a few days away, Gingerich said she hopes the roads and driving conditions will have improved to make the Panthers' trip to South Bend a safe one.

A weather forecast for South Bend, Ind. shows that snow showers will continue through Thursday morning, but only partly cloudy skies on the weekend.

Gingerich spoke about how she has driven in tough weather conditions before and how scary how an experience it can be.

"It (the meet) is still a few days away, so hopefully the meet will have cleared up by then," Gingerich said.

With the meet being away from Lantz Fieldhouse, the decision whether or not to hold the meet will be made by Notre Dame's athletic administrators.

When meets are held at the Lantz Fieldhouse, head coach Tom Akers says that the coaching staff tries to use their best judgment in making decisions.

"Obviously the Athletic Director has the final say, but generally we use our own best judgement," Akers said.

Akers said that the main focus of determining whether or not to cancel during inclement conditions is made for the safety of traveling athletes, coaches and fans.

"With indoor track, weather is not a concern for competition, just travel safety," Akers said.

However, once the indoor track season is over, weather conditions cannot be used as an excuse.

"Usually we will have our outdoor track meets during rain, snow and sleet. We are lucky to have our fieldhouse so close to our outdoor facility so athletes can warm-up for their events indoors, come outside and compete, and then return to the fieldhouse once their event is over," Akers said.

Akers joked that the name of Eastern's outdoor meet held in the spring, "The Big Blue", was named in reference to the cold, early spring weather.

"The 'Big Blue' name is jokingly referred to as the color of your skin because it is so cold!" Akers said.

The Eastern track and field team will return to action in South Bend, Ind. For the Notre Dame Meyo Invite this Friday and Saturday.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu