As school starts back up and the weather gets colder, the Track and Field athletes hit the ground running with their third indoor meet, and first indoor meet since the end of winter break. The University of Washington (UW) Indoor Preview, which took place on Saturday, Jan. 18, featured a select few on the team competing to get back in the flow of the season. 

Track and Field head coach Kevin Adkisson said the meet is a tougher one because it caters to more Division I schools rather than Division II.

Given that the entirety of the Track and Field team was not able to compete due to limited space, the competition was stiff. Athletes have been practicing in the offseason to prepare for this indoor season and polish their particular events. Daniel Calderon-Hernandez, a senior at CWU who specializes in the men’s 400-meter, 200-meter and 4×400 relay said he had been getting ready for this event all quarter.  

“I’m feeling really comfortable. I’ve been working all fall quarter just to get ready for this meet,” Calderon-Hernandez said. “[I’m] just ready to get back into the swing of things but I’m ready to compete.” 

Calderon-Hernandez finished 11th in the 400 with a time of 50.09 seconds.

Another athlete that has been working hard on the track is junior Bobby Widmar. Widmar’s main focus of competition is sprints. Widmar said he is trying to tune things in and get ready to run coming off of break. He usually feels pretty good whenever it is time for a meet. Widmar competed in the 200 and finished with a time of 23.40. 

The women’s side of the team is looking to make a difference this season and have a greater impact than their outstanding finishes last season. There were three women Wildcats that made it to the NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 2018-19 season. HarLee Ortega, Halle Irvine, and Alexa Shindruk each earned All-American awards. 

“Our hurdles right now are really strong,” Adkisson said. “We have two people that are national level and that’s Erykah Weems and Sidney Trinidad.” 

Both the senior Weems and the junior Trinidad competed in the meet. Weems was 12th in the women’s 400-meter with a time of 57.46 and Trinidad was 12th in the women’s 800-meter with a time of 2 minutes, 16.45 seconds.

Aidan Cain, who is a senior this year, is another athlete that participated in the meet. Cain finished 11th in the men’s weight throw with a toss of 55 feet, 4 3/4 inches. Not only did these athletes compete against other universities, they also competed against each other in certain events. Cain was excited to compete against teammate Andrew Harris. 

“[Harris has] been killing it at practice and up until this year, he hasn’t been able to throw the weight but we have more roster room so he is able to compete,” Cain said.

Samantha La Rue finished eighth place in the women’s shot put with a mark of 45-03 3/4. La Rue also finished in the top 20 with a mark of 51-01 3/4 in the women’s weight throw. Ethan Tonder finished eighth place in the men’s shot put with a mark of 49-08 1/2. Finally Erykah Weems, Sidney Trinidad, Aujanique Doss, and McCalle DeChenne competed in women’s 4×400-meter relay, finishing with a time of 3:57.97.