With the indoor season underway, the SIUE men’s and women’s track and field program is heading into competition with excitement and ambition.
One of the newer faces on the roster, graduate student Norman Mukwada, joined SIUE after competing at Florida A&M University. Mukwada is a sprinter who mainly competes in the 200- and 400-meter sprints. Mukwada said his transition into the team has been good, in part due to the hospitality.
“It’s a different environment and new people, but we work together, and I really love my teammates,” Mukwada said. “We support each other so we can achieve what we want to achieve. It’s about togetherness.”
Freshman Olivia Hansen is an international addition to the team. Competing in hurdles and sprints, Hansen will take on her first Division I season after previously competing through private club programs in Sweden.
“Here, I finally have a team to compete for,” Hansen said. “That gives me a higher purpose, and I want to do everything to benefit the team.”
Hansen said that, for her first season, she has set big goals for herself. She hopes to break 58 seconds in the 400 and reach the mid-8-second range in the 60-meter hurdles.
“I do track because I enjoy it,” Hansen said. “My results don’t define me as a person. If I work hard, I’ll get good results, but I want to find joy in what I’m doing.”
Returning Cougars like senior Konrad Sacha are reacclimating themselves to the indoor season. Sacha said indoor is more technical due to the tighter turns and shared lane racing in events like the 400-meter sprint.
Last season, Sacha ran several events, including the 60-, 200- and 400-meter sprints, as well as the 4×400 meter relay. Sacha’s 400-meter time at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships was 49.2 seconds.
Sophomore sprinter Darrelle Rice has been focusing on both her mental and physical health leading into this season. Rice is coming off a strong indoor season with personal bests of 8.13 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles and 26.4 seconds in the 200-meter sprint.
“I’ve dealt with injury, but I refuse to let it define me,” Rice said. “I plan to come back strong.”
Men’s and women’s track and field head coach Marcus Evans said he believes his opening meet will serve as a benchmark for the team, no matter how experienced.
Evans said that the key to the beginning of the season is confidence and support. Despite track being a mainly individual sport, he said his teams pride themselves on being there for each other. Evans said he wants his teams to be the loudest
With training through a period with final exams, Evans said student-athletes are encouraged to communicate needs as they balance the student-athlete schedule.
“The student side is always going to come before the athlete side,” Evans said. “There’s no competition more important than graduating.”
Evans said the program is looking to be on podiums and be national qualifiers.
“We’ve gone from near the bottom of the standings to one of the best finishes in school history last year,” Evans said. “We want to keep pushing forward. Anything can happen at a conference championship.”
For now, the Cougars are focused on their first meets of the season, competing hard, learning where they stand and returning ready to grow.
SIUE’s next meet is the Alexis Jarrett Invitational on Jan. 6 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.
