Although they walked away with an eighth-place finish, the Alabama women’s track and field team put together a solid performance at the SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., finishing just 14.5 points outside the top five. The team finished in eighth place with 51 points. Florida would take the meet with 110 points.
Though the Tide did not bring home an SEC title, the team did have several athletes named to the All-SEC team. Among those athletes were senior Kim Laing, who claimed the 60-meter hurdles title by just 0.08 seconds, freshmen Krystle Schade, who finished second in the high jump clearing a height of 5-10 ½, and Chealsea Taylor, who finished second in the pentathlon, scoring 4,019 points.
Among the point scorers were some of the team’s walk-on athletes. Sophomore Amethyst Holmes finished seventh in the hammer throw posting a mark of 60-4. This mark exceeds her mark from last year by over 12 feet according to head coach Sandy Fowler.
“I surprised myself in early February [at the beginning of the season] and to come out in late February and have such a significant PR is quite a blessing to me,” said Holmes. “I owe it to the coaching I’ve had and the whole team for encouraging me.”
Holmes is among some of the athletes on the team who have not yet posted an NCAA provision time and will need to participate in a last chance meet this weekend to do so. Head
Coach Sandy Fowler acknowledges the importance of this meet for her athletes and foresees the major stumbling block in the competitors’ way: mental strength.
“The hardest thing coming off the conference championship is more emotional and mental; they have to bring that same level of emotion and hype [from the conference championship] into the last chance meet,” said Fowler. “That’s hard to do, but it all starts in practice.”
As for those athletes who have already qualified for NCAAs, the preparation does not stop until the meet on March 12-13 in Fayetteville. Kim Laing has already begun to narrow in on what areas of her race she can improve on before then.
“I would have to make some improvements on the beginning of my race, the first three hurdles. If I continue doing what I’m doing now, training hard, working on improving every aspect of my race, I am confident that I will have more success,” said Laing.
No question that confidence comes from years of experience competing on the national stage, but what about those who this is their first NCAA’s appearance? Coach Fowler doesn’t seem to have any doubts her first time competitors, particularly her freshmen, will have any troubles, noting that they are all big meet competitors and could surprise everyone.
“My freshmen did an absolute fantastic job [at SECs],” said Fowler. “When you recruit an athlete, you recruit them in that they will affect your program immediately and help, and there have been young ladies that have done so.”
