As the Alabama Crimson Tide track and field team rolls through the indoor season, it continues to top podiums in a variety of events. Sprinters such as Tamara Clark, the women’s 100-meter dash school record holder, are consistently putting up fast times on the track.

However, it might be time for Alabama fans to take a closer look at the athletes competing in the field.

These athletes are improving from season to season and meet to meet. Fifth-year senior thrower Haley Teel boasted a second place finish at the Bob Pollock Invitational on Jan. 25-26, her highest finish of the season with a shot put distance of 17.08 meters.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how the SEC Championship and the National Championship go, because I think we can do some incredible things,” Teel said.

Just as it is in all sports, the SEC is highly competitive in track and field. For Teel, currently pursuing her masters in Sports Business Management, the main competition will come from Kentucky.

“We have three girls that should go 1, 2, 3, and Kentucky has girls that should go 4, 5, 6,” she said.

As with any Division 1 sport, being a part of the Crimson Tide track team requires a tremendous amount of skill. Teel, and the rest of the team, are competing individually among some of the winningest programs in the country. Teel accredits her success to being “coachable and getting after it.”

In another event focused on the launching of a projectile, a person instead of a shot put, senior Will Herrscher is consistently putting up vaults in the upper ranges of sixteen feet. The Exercise Science major placed second at the Vanderbilt Invitational, and is looking forward to improving through the rest of the season.

“I’m most looking forward to see how our team can perform at the conference and national level,” Herrscher said. “We’ve had a team that’s been getting better and better and I’m excited to see where that lands us.”

The stakes are certainly high for the Crimson Tide, as it is the reigning SEC indoor champions. Last year’s victory, the team’s first since 1972, is Herrscher’s favorite memory of his track career at Alabama.

“When we won that, that was really special, not just for me but for the entire program,” he said.

Herrscher’s coach, Ryan Hays, just joined the coaching staff in October. A former pole vaulter himself, who competed for Kansas, Hays is up for the challenge of joining a new team.

“This season I’m kind of hitting the ground running,” Hays said. “Learning how this program functions. I’m looking forward to those bigger meets, to learn what the future entails.”

With athletes like Herrscher in his bag of pole vaulters, Hays can expect to add to the legacy of athletic excellence at the University of Alabama.

“Will is a very athletic individual,” Hays said. “He’s fast on the runway, he’s light, and he’s extremely competitive. He’s told me his mentality which is he wants to be the best he can be that day. He wants to finish at the top of the podium, no matter what.”

That competitive spirit echoes throughout the entire track and field team, and with the season just heating up, Alabama fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.