Emily Van Heel and Taylor Berg will anchor the St. Thomas women’s track and field team as it heads into the upcoming outdoor season, while the men will lean on leaders Eyo Ekpo and Gavin Yseth to boost it after a successful indoor season.

Men’s coach Steve Mathre said he is confident the team will transition well from its strong indoor season to outdoor.

“We want to ride that momentum from the indoor season to the outdoor season,” Mathre said. “The challenge in this Minnesota weather is to keep training moving forward and everybody focused.”

The women’s team hopes to continue its success as well after winning the indoor conference consecutively for the past 14 seasons. The women have won the past eight outdoor conference titles.

“We typically use the indoor season as a building block for the outdoor season…we’ve had to adjust because spring break was later this year,” middle distance coach Rich Maleniak said. “Now its time for us to really get after it for the next five to seven weeks.”

Seasoned veterans like Van Heel and Berg will collaborate with young, up-and-coming athletes to hopefully dominate the MIAC.

Kayla Goeman said the team’s well-rounded nature and depth are critical to its success.

“We had 10 first-place finishes in indoor, so basically we’re strong everywhere,” Goeman said. “It’s hard to pick out a single area, and that’s why we are so good.”

The men’s team is also expected to perform well this season with returning athletes like Bryan Thell and Ekpo leading the charge. Ekpo is coming into the outdoor season strong after receiving the Outstanding Men’s Field Athlete award in the indoor MIAC championships for the fourth year in a row.

Nick Samuelson said the team is very excited to finally get outside.

“We all really love going from indoor to outdoor and getting to implement everything to its fullest … to get outside, and into the warm weather is great,” Samuelson said.

Mathre hopes that with the warm weather comes a perfect ending to this year’s hard work.

“We always start off the season with the goal of winning both conference championships for indoor and outdoor and we’re halfway there,” Mathre said. “It’s not a fully successful season unless we win both.”

Goeman said excitement will continue to rise as the conference meet approaches.

“For the team, it’s really exciting that we are hosting outdoor conference. It’s the biggest stage within the conference and to have it here with our fans and school spirit will be really exciting,” Goeman said. “Especially defending our home turf.”

Alex Goering can be reached at goer8777@stthomas.edu.