Central is coming off of a fruitful 2014 indoor track and field season, and the team’s focus has not shifted. They only seek improvement and can hopefully propel even more athletes to nationals this year.

With three indoor meets already in the books for Central’s track and field team, the competitors are hungry for more.

The Wildcats have done very well to start off the season and the future is looking bright.

Indoor season differs from the traditional outdoor season in a few ways, so for some invitational meets, only a select group of team members compete.

At the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 17 in Seattle, several athletes performed admirably and a few even set some personal records (PR) at the meet.

“The people who we had competing looked good… it was definitely a meet where we were still working out some kinks and shaking the rust off of people,” Central track and field coach Kevin Adkisson said. “But we definitely saw good marks and it bodes well for the season as we get going.”

The success continued at the Idaho Collegiate meet on Jan. 23 in Moscow, ID where more PRs were set.

One athlete, junior high-jumper Taylor Fettig, recorded a jump of 5 feet, 5 inches, which already exceeds the NCAA Division II provisional national qualifying standard.

Fettig is coming off of an extremely successful 2014 season, as she also qualified for nationals in the high jump last year.

“Obviously it’s a blessing,” Fettig said. “I’m always trying to improve my mark, this week I’m going into the meet knowing that I can improve and will do better,”

She has a few GNAC Player of the Week honors under her belt, in addition to earning two All-American honors.

“I want to set high expectations for myself… I know last year I went into the season wanting to be an All-American,” Fettig said. Fettig acheived her goal.

“This year my goal is to be a national champion for high jump,” Fettig said. “But that’s all in the hands of God, so I’m going to do the best I can do,”

Junior sprinter Kent McKinney ran a personal best 6.92 seconds in the men’s 60-meter dash at the UW Indoor preview.

“It’s great to see [him] come into the season and have a PR at his very first meet,” Adkisson said. “That shows a lot… He is one of the top performers in the conference, to see him this season, reeling in the national qualifying mark is exciting… If all goes well he is going to hit that in the next meet or so.”

This track squad is going to stay determined in order to keep their early success going.

All of their eyes on the UW Invitational coming up on Jan. 30.

“On the women’s side, this is probably one of the best teams we’ve had in a really long time.” Adkisson said. “I would say our best indoor finish ever is second overall and I think we’ve got a team here that is ready to do that, get up there and be top three in the conference again.”

Despite having a small roster on the men’s side, Adkisson still thinks that the quality of the competitors is the best they have had in a few years.

“I think we will still be able to hold our own and have some good results at the conference level,” Adkisson said.

Although rust is still being shaken off from not participating lately, Central’s track and field squad expects to once again achieve more personal and team goals in the coming weeks.

Friday’s meet will mark the fourth of seven events that Central track athletes are scheduled to participate in.

The Wildcats said they are excited for the upcoming events. The select group of athletes who will participate in the UW Invitational on Friday are more than ready to get going.

“We are just really looking for people to continue to grow,” Adkisson said. “I think we will continue to see marks increase, and I look forward to getting more and more people up into the top ranks of the GNAC before we go to the conference meet.”

The next meet that will feature the entire track and field team competing is at the Washington State University Cougar Indoor in Pullman on Feb. 6.