MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – As the winter sports season begins to wind down, the Millersville indoor track & field team travels to Lehigh University to compete in the PSAC Indoor Championships. 
 
The Marauders had a solid indoor season and are sending 19 athletes to the tournament to compete in the individual events, plus a 4x400-meter relay team and a distance medley relay team. Head coach Andy Young said the team's history has included more success in the outdoor competition than indoor, but a strong finish could bode well for the upcoming season.
 
"Indoor has never been our forte, but if we have a solid showing, it's a good indicator for our outdoor season," Young said. "There seems to be a little bit of correlation for us with where we place in indoors and how outdoors is going to go. I think there's a great opportunity for us this year."
 
The Marauders have gotten equal contributions from their underclassmen and veterans. Graduate student Aurora Conrad will represent the 'Ville alongside senior Emma Elwell and junior Arianna Kouakou in the 200-meter dash and will also run in the 60-meter dash alongside junior Darian Hauf. Hauf, who currently sits at 23^rdin Division II in pole vault, will participate in that with fellow junior Megan Malecki. Seniors Morgan Janiuk and Hannah Sweda are set to run in the 3,000-meter run, and Sweda will also run in the 5,000-meter run while Janiuk will compete in the 1-mile run. 
 
Young noted that Hauf took first place in the pole vault her freshman year and currently sits at second place in the conference, setting her up nicely to do well this year. Another Marauder that Young said tends to show up in important meets is junior Aubrey Sydnor. Sydnor will run the 400-meter dash with sophomore Shelby Derkosh. Sydnor won the event in the outdoor conference championships last year and finished fourth at the indoor tournament.
 
Also competing for the Marauders in the throws is junior Maddy Downs and sophomores Sarah Hessler and Seya Trujillo. Downs and Hessler earned bids in both the weight throw and shot put, while Trujillo will compete in the weight throw. Hessler started competing in the weight throw this season, winning the event in the Bison Opener with the fifth-best throw in program history. Other additions to the record book made earlier in the season were from freshman Katelyn Murphy and junior Sabela Zablackis in the 60-meter hurdles. Murphy tied the time for the fourth-best in the event last weekend, and Zablackis earned the eighth best time at the Coach I Open. Another freshman the Marauders have gotten results out of immediately is Danika Bolinsky in the triple jump. The two first-years have caught the attention of Young in their rookie campaign, and Young is excited to see how they finish out.
 
"Danika, we knew she was going to be strong," Young said. "She's battled through some injuries, but she's really coming on at the right time. Katelyn Murphy is a little bit of a surprise. She was solid in high school, but I think she's gotten a lot better in college. We noticed it in the weight room, she's a very strong person and was surprisingly strong to us. Her upside, she's just going to keep getting better and better because she's very competitive and very strong."
 
Rounding out the group of Marauders making the trip this weekend is sophomore Cora Heilman in the 800-meter run, freshmen Aubrey Bitner and Chanel Hercules in the long jump and Bri Pollock in the one-mile run, and Janiuk will run the mile as well.
 
Young sees the indoor championships as a launch pad into the outdoor season, in that the team improves once they get towards the end of the year. The results from the last couple of seasons backs up Young's belief as well. The Marauders finished sixth last year in the indoor championships and improved to fourth in the outdoor championships. The year before that, Millersville was fourth in the indoor championships and won the outdoor championships. Young knows where his team stacks up against the rest of the conference heading into the weekend, and if the Marauders can get inside the top three, he'll be pleased with the team's indoor season.
 
"The top two teams are very strong in Slippery Rock and Shippensburg, and it's going to be a dogfight for the spots behind them," Young said. "If we're in there, then we did our job. If we're at the top-end of that group after the other two schools, then I think we exceeded expectations… Team-wise, if we have a solid team showing and we do what we need to do, we're going to be happy with that."