Indoor Track and Field to start 2023 at Coach I Invitational

Friday, January 20

Lancaster, PA

9:30 AM

Millersville University

Coach I Open

Photo by: Mark Palczewski

Indoor Track and Field to start 2023 at Coach I Invitational

1/20/2023 9:30:00 AM | Women's Indoor Track and Field

2023_Indoor_Standards__1_.pdf

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Millersville women's indoor track and field team is set to continue its 2022-23 on Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Coach I Invitational hosted by Franklin & Marshall. The Marauders began their season with a strong showing at the Bison Opener on the weekend of Dec. 2-3 -- the event saw Hannah Woelfling place first in the weight throw and second in the shot put, both with PSAC qualifying distances.

Millersville is coming off a program-best fourth place finish at the 2022 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Indoor Championships. The 2022 championships, which were held at Edinboro, saw the Marauders do most of their damage in the field events, specifically the throws scoring a combined 33 points in the weight throw and shot put. Woelfling took home the weight throw title in 2022 and was named USTFCCCA Indoor All-Atlantic Region in both the weight throw and shot put. However, the Marauders are in their first season without two-time PSAC Indoor Championships Field Athlete of the Meet, Aliyah Striver.

"Well, Aliyah was the Indoor Field Athlete of the year, it's hard to replace that, but Hannah was right there with her last year," said head coach Andy Young. "I think Hannah is poised to be a very strong thrower in our conference, although she has some competition, especially in the shot put, so that'll be fun to watch. We also have some younger athletes that we hope will keep developing as they have been -- throws are fun for us because of what coach Hartman (throws coach) is able to do on the developmental side."

The Marauders also return the PSAC Freshman of the Year, Darian Hauf. Hauf was named Freshman of the Year after taking home Pole Vault titles in both the PSAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The sophomore earned USTFCCCA Indoor All-Atlantic Region honors in the Pole Vault. She'll look to continue her dominance in the 2023 spring semester.

"In some ways [Darian] was a freshman last year and in some ways she wasn't a freshman last year," said Young. "She's a competitor at heart, she just wants to win and she's had, and still has that competitive mindset that's tough as nails. I know she was a little frustrated during the first meet of the season because she came right from the 60m and had to jump, ended up qualifying for the conference meet and was still mad -- that shows how much she wants to win."

The Marauders also return quite a few athletes on that track that Young feels should have strong 2023 seasons.

"On the track side we have quite a few athletes that are poised to do pretty well," said Young. "Aurora Conrad had an unfortunate thing last season, she was our top sprinter most of the year and at the Indoor PSAC meet strained her hamstring and struggled with the injury all the way into outdoors, but she seems to be back all the way. She had a really good opener and we're hopeful she can have a big impact in 2023. There is so much depth on this team right now, especially in sprints we have a lot of athletes that could potentially be on relays or individuals, a lot should qualify for our conference meet."

The Marauders compete six times before the PSAC Championships, which take place Feb. 24-26. This includes the Bison Opener, which took place in early Dec. 2022, Coach I Open (Saturday, Jan. 21), Mini Dip Invitational (Friday, Jan. 27), Deshriver Invite (Sunday, Feb. 5), Big Apple Invite (Saturday, Feb. 11) and the Princeton Invitational (Sunday, Feb. 19). The NCAA Championships are set for March 10-12.

"For us, obviously the conference meet is the key but one that we feel will set us up really well for that is the Big Apple Invite in Staten Island," said Young. "A lot of division I schools attend the event -- competitively, for our strong athletes, that's a great opportunity for them to go against other athletes that are very good. A lot of the other meets give kids a chance to get our and compete, hopefully knock out a qualifying time or distance."

Coach Young also pointed out that they are more of an outdoor program since Millersville doesn't have indoor facilities, so these indoor events help the team prepare for outdoor meets.