With the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Indoor Championship right around the corner, CWU’s track and field team is readying themselves before they step foot into The Podium in Spokane, Washington on Feb. 20.

“It’s always a good first taste of what championships could be for us this year,” Track and Field Head Coach Kevin Adkisson said. “We definitely want to establish ourselves in the top half of the conference and see if we can compete well with some of the other more ‘full teams’ that are out there, just because not every conference school carries a full large roster.”

The team’s most recent events took place on Feb. 4 at the WSU Open and Feb. 11 at the Whitworth Invitational. According to Adkisson, the weather has played a huge role in the team being able to prepare for these upcoming meets.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the good weather we got in January, which we were very happy for and pleased to have our snow on the track melted off,” Adkisson said. “That’s the big thing in this early phase of the season overall, being able to get quality training in because we’re still keeping the big picture of the season in mind. We’re trying to train now to improve for the main peaking of the year, which will be later in April and May.”

CWU’s indoor track and field team has quite a few athletes whose names have been acknowledged for various awards, one recently being mid-distance runner Johan Correa. According to an article published on Jan. 23, Correa was recognized as one of the GNAC Track and Field Players of the Week for his performance so far this season. 

Correa is a junior transfer student from Spokane Falls Community College and during his short time here in Ellensburg, he not only broke his third school record during his third meet for the Wildcats, but he is also ranked fourth in the GNAC mile event this season. Correa had been prepping hard for CWU’s indoor season and his numbers speak for themselves. 

“I’ve been training hard since summer for the indoor season while also taking care of my body so I can be at my best during practices,” Correa said. “My off-season training has been successful and I’ve been feeling really good during practice and meet days.”

Not only is Correa feeling good, but Adkisson also mentions that he is excited to see what spring will hold for this year’s team. 

“As we move to outdoor and [regain] our full roster, we really want to be able to compete hard for top half of the conference, and preferably targeting top three,” Adkisson said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us to do, but I think we’ve got a lot of solid people … we’re excited to see what the new crowd is going to do to help us improve as we build into the season.”