The Alabama track & field team continues its indoor season this Saturday as it competes in the Auburn Invitational in Birmingham, Ala.
The Crimson Tide is coming off its first meet of the indoor season as it hosted the Crimson Tide Opener Saturday in Birmingham. There was no team score kept at the event, but the Tide won two individual events. Senior All-American Krystle Schade captured victory in the women’s high jump. On the men’s side Chavis Ken Taylor, a junior-college transfer, made an impressive Alabama debut by winning the Men’s 800 meters.
“I was expecting tough competition,” Schade said. “I relied on my practice that my coach had given. I just went with my confidence and was able to succeed further and get the win.”
After finishing second in the NCAA outdoor championships last year, Schade has bigger goals this season.
“I want to try to beat the indoor NCAA record for high jump and hold that for a while,” Schade said. “As well as set my Alabama school records a little high.”
Jumping coach Dick Booth said that the first meet was a good learning experience for the team.
“No matter if it happens the way you want it to or doesn’t, you’re going to learn from it, and you walk away from it knowing more than you did when it happened,” Booth said.
Booth said the key for the team to have success is to always do better than before.
Head coach Dan Waters said the biggest key for the Tide to have success at this meet and for the rest of the indoor season is for the young athletes to step up right away.
“We have to absolutely rely on the freshman to act like veterans,” Waters said. “We have a lot of young athletes in the program that have to step up right away and contribute and not make freshman mistakes.”
Alabama will face tough competition for the second straight weekend in Birmingham. Several teams from the Southeastern Conference will be competing this weekend, including Tennessee, Georgia and Auburn.
“We will see most of the SEC in the first TWO weeks of the season,” Waters said. “It’ll be nice to use this as a measuring stick and see where we stack up in the conference.”
As in the Crimson Tide Opener, there will not be team points counted at the Auburn Invitational. Waters said he wants to see improvement heading into competition this weekend.
“Improving and following the steps and the coaching we have been giving them will help,” Waters said. “Try to implement the changes we saw this week and make a difference in their performance, kind of following the process, like Coach [Nick] Saban likes to say.”
