It is still early going in the indoor season for Portland State’s track and field team, but so far head coach Ronye Harrison is impressed with how his team is performing. The team broke in their athletes at their first meet and are looking forward to meets in Washington and New York.
“This year’s Cherry and Silver Invitational for our sprinters was one of the best,” Harrison said. “We have a shot this year to be on the podium as a team on the women’s side. It’s meets like the New Mexico meet that let us know were we are at. They’re still lifting and doing stuff that they normally would do during the week, and having [personal records] while doing that is impressive.”
Junior Geronne Black put in a solid performance at the Cherry and Silver Invitational in New Mexico. She finished second in the women’s 60-meter dash after winning her preliminary heat. Black had her best time of the young season at 7.47 seconds.
Also running very well was senior Karene King, who won her heat in the women’s 200-meter, and finished second overall in the event. Both of these runners lead the Big Sky Conference.
The Vikings are just starting to truly get into the meat of the season. The track team has meets every week until the weekend of the Big Sky indoor championships. Portland State will be going up to the University of Washington for the UW Invitational this weekend and is heading to New York the weekend after.
“I expect for us to have huge PRs by the time we get to the indoor championships,” Harrison said. “The UW meet is a practice run for New York and beyond. We are not looking for anything specific except that more people will use it as a practice meet and work on the technical side of their training.”
When the Vikings travel to New York the first weekend of February, they will want to make sure they make themselves heard. This meet will be when Harrison does the majority of his recruiting on the East Coast. Harrison hopes that his team will get the university on the map for athletes 3,000 miles away.
“The reason why we have meets like the New York meet is not so much for everyone to have big PRs,” Harrison said. “It’s to get Portland State’s name out.”
The track and field team goes on the road again this weekend to Seattle to take part in the UW invitational. After that, the team will travel to New York to run in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. After a few more meets, including another in Seattle, the indoor season will conclude at the Big Sky indoor championships and at the NCAA indoor championships. With a busy schedule coming up in the next month and a half, Harrison has one thing to say to his team:
“Never let up.”