Distance runners head to Ohio State, others to Louisville
After producing eight Mid-American Conference qualifiers last weekend at Western Kentucky, the women's track team is heading back to Kentucky and Ohio.
This weekend, the team will compete at the Louisville Invitational Friday, with distance runners traveling to Ohio to compete on Saturday at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Track Classic.
Among those running at OSU will be senior distance runner Maddie Ribant, who qualified last week in the steeplechase with a time of 10:36.06, which ranks her No. 29 out of 48 athletes in the East Region nationally.
“Right now, I haven’t thought about it too much, because there’s still a lot of time left,” Ribant said. “It’s great the way it is right now, but, I’m still not content with anything yet.”
The senior runner is now looking to continue her impressive numbers as she trains this week and prepares to travel with her teammates. Momentum is on her side with the latter half of the season in full swing.
“I’m excited, even though we’re going to be at different meets,” Ribant said. “Hopefully we can execute what we've all been training so hard for.”
Even though the calendar shows spring and the outdoor track and field season is well underway, the weather here in Mount Pleasant has hardly been favorable for the runners. Luckily, for Ribant, she has had the benefit of being able to compete in the much warmer weather of Kentucky, Tennessee and California.
“You have to be ready for whatever is coming at you,” Ribant said. “Nobody ever complains too much about running in warmer weather; it’s much more pleasant.”
Ribant says the warmer weather does have a positive impact on not only her performance, but also CMU’s overall performance.
“We need to get into the MAC meet in order to be successful,” Ribant said. “Hopefully, our runners can do that this weekend.”
