BATON ROUGE, La. – The Texas Southern men’s track & field team made history once again with its second consecutive SWAC Outdoor Championship Tuesday night.

TSU won the title with 136 total points as they held off a late charge from Jackson State. With the win, TSU becomes the first SWAC men’s track & field program since 2001-02 and 2002-03 to win back-to-back trifectas (cross country, indoor/outdoor track & field).

TSU started off day one (Sunday) strong as Jalen Walker won the hammer with a throw of 195-1 feet followed by Blaine Nunn’s personal-best and third-place mark of 177-1 feet. Trevon Hill would place seventh after a throw of 164-3 feet. Malachi Byrd finished third in the javelin as he threw 167-04 feet while Jaden Brooks placed fifth (164-03) and Hill seventh (160-0).

In the Sunday night distance run, Manuel Garza and Gael Flores placed fourth (32:52.57) and seventh in the 10,000 (33:46.57) to earn seven points.

On Monday, the throwing unit shined again as Walker (52-7.25), Hill (51-6.25) and Nunn (51-2.25) finished (2-3-4) in the shot put. Byrd returned to the podium with a second-place finish in the decathlon as he won the 110-meter hurdles while placing second in the shot put, pole vault, long jump, 1,500 and 400-meter runs. In the nightcap, David Livingston earned his first career SWAC Championship in the steeplechase as he ran 9:39.38. Jeremiah Barrera placed third in the event after running 9:53.60.

Adam Hines started off the third and final day of competition by winning his second straight SWAC Pole Vault Championship as the sophomore jumped 15-5.75 feet. Ian Charles (13-6.25) and Byrd (13-0.25) also picked up points as they placed fifth and seventh, respectively. Walker and Brooks placed fourth (154-01) and sixth (149-05), respectively in the discus while Braylon Carr finished sixth in the triple jump (49-05).

Brandon Adolphus finished fifth in the 1,500 with a personal-best time of 3:58.91 while Donyea Jarmon placed sixth (14.21) in the 110-meter hurdles. Isaac Henderson (10.44) placed fifth in the 100 while David Livingston (15:37.58), Manuel Garza (15:55.7) and Gael Flores (16:38.92) combined to earn 11 critical points in the 5,000 as they finished third, fifth and eighth, respectively.

Several individuals will await their next destination as the NCAA West Regionals will take place in College Station, Texas May 28-31.

In the national team when 18, and now aged 30, Cecilie Moe Weinreich has been at the top of the tree in women’s Canoe Polo for a very long time. “From 2012 to 2015 I was a player, from 2015 to 2019 I was the captain and from 2020 to 2023 I was actually a player and a coach at the same time,” she tells. “I was not ready to quit playing in 2020, so I balanced both roles for four years.”

“We have a coach on land this year, and I am very grateful to be able to focus on my playing, and interacting with the team solely as a team-mate.”

For Weinreich, pure enjoyment now carries high priority: “Not that I didn’t enjoy it previously – I did! But to prolong my time in the sport I try to absorb all the great things like the fun of a game, an important victory and maybe most importantly the social bond and the freedom. Playing Canoe Polo, I forget all else in life. I am just there, in the moment, giving all I have. I try to enjoy that feeling and just enjoy that my life dream, of competing in The World Games, is coming true.”

Denmark’s clear target for The World Games

With a Golden Goal win against Great Britain at the World Championships 2024 in China, Denmark’s women’s team secured 7th place and thereby the last qualifying place for The World Games 2025. The big target is to reach the semi-final. The seven other women’s teams competing in Chengdu are China, Germany, Iran, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

“In 2023, my last year as a player-coach, we managed to get 5th at the European Championships, the highest ever placement for the team. We were very close to reaching the semi-final – and it is definitely within reach now,” says Weinreich. “Five years ago, it seemed impossible that we could ever qualify for The World Games. But here we are! A hard and solid team effort!”

“I’m proud of my achievements as a coach”

“Canoe Polo is a very small sport, and sometimes it can be hard to find qualified volunteers that can help for example with coaching. Combining playing and coaching was very tough, but also very rewarding. I am so grateful for all that I have learned about myself, team sports and coaching during this period,” says Weinreich.

“But it was also very taxing on a personal level, and it cost me a lot of energy to balance the role of playing and coaching at the same time.”

“Even though I know I made some mistakes from time to time, I always aimed to do what was best for the team, and therefore I am very proud of what I achieved with the national team as the player-coach.”

She is typical of the thousands of devoted individuals in small sports, who make great sacrifices because of pure love for the sport, despite no salary.

Team tactics matter

“For our sport, technique and tactics are very important. We can do technical drills both on land and in the kayak, and tactics are best studied on land by watching and analyzing games and situations – then using the analysis on water during our training sessions. We do spend a good amount of time talking tactics and practicing. It is vital to be a good team!”

“We do consider each opponent separately,” continues Weinreich, “but it is different from team to team and coach to coach how much the opponent is studied. When I was coaching, we tried to develop Excel sheets with statistics from other teams and players, so we could write down ‘Number 1 from Switzerland shoots like this – so we can block her shot like that’. That’s my own ideal approach.”

And so to Chengdu

“Our strongest opponents are probably the Dutch, Italian and Spanish teams,” concludes Weinreich.

“They are in our group, and we want a good start in the group, for a better quarter-final opponent. But I believe anything can happen at The World Games. It really depends on who shows up with the right mental game.”

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