University of Minnesota Athletics
Warm-Up Lap: Q&A with Emma Spagnola
10/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
MINNEAPOLIS ââ'¬" Junior Emma Spagnola and the Gopher women's track & field team are back on campus and busy with fall training. Spagnola, a native of Aurora, Ill., spent the summer training and working for the Minnesota Twins grounds crew. After placing fourth in the 100m hurdles and ninth in the 400m hurdles to help the Gophers to the Big Ten Conference title as a sophomore last spring, Spagnola is poised for another strong season.
GopherSports.com caught up with Spagnola to learn about fall training, team culture, goals for the season, and more.
Gopher Sports: How did you spend your summer?
Emma Spagnola: I took a month-long kinesiology class called Introduction to Motor Development Across the Lifespan. I stayed on campus and trained and lifted all summer. I worked for the Twins grounds crew with some teammates, Erin Hawkins, Ke-ke Burks, Kiley Sabin, and Allie Heifort. Jess Lehman and Nicolle Murphy worked the same job in the past and said it was a fun job, so they connected us. It was the best part-time job ever. We basically just made the field look pretty. We raked the grass, put the bases out, painted the lines, and that kind of stuff. Pulling the tarp was our main job when it rained. It was really fun.
GS: What classes are you taking this fall?
ES: I'm a Kinesiology major, so I have a few classes within the major. I'm also taking a sport management minor, so I have one of those classes, too. I'm taking Sport and Exercise Psychology, Physics, Intro to Sales and Fundraising, and Research Methods. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do for a career. I'm thinking about occupational therapy, but I still have to learn more about the field and shadow people.
GS: How is fall training going so far?
ES: It's going really well. Lifting maxes have changed, so now I'm lifting heavier weights. That's been kind of a transition, but it's still going really well. Running is also going really well I think. Not only me, but everyone is doing really well so far, especially with not having a track and changing locations for our workouts and trying new things. It's going really well. I'm excited.
GS: What do you like best about this time of year?
ES: We're really antsy for indoor season to get here, but we're all running in the same group and that's exciting. You can see how everyone else is doing and how our freshmen are handling the workouts. In the spring, we separate into our little groups, so it's nice to all be together for the most part.
GS: How are the freshmen fitting in?
ES: They're doing really well. Some of them struggle a little bit with different workouts, but they're doing really well. I'm excited to see how they do when the season comes and see who will red-shirt and not red-shirt. In one workout, someone will be up at the front, and then in another workout that person will be more toward the middle or back and someone else will shine. It's hard to tell how they will fit in this year, but I'm excited to find out.
GS: What's it like training with teammate and fellow hurdler Kimberly Golding?
ES: It's a lot of fun. I love working with Kim. Coach Bingle calls us 'brothers' because we go head-to-head, but we're really good friends. Practice is really good with her because we push each other, and we make each other better. When we're competing, we just have fun with it. There's no bad blood between us, which is really good.
GS: How would you describe Coach Bingle's coaching style?
ES: He encourages us to be 'goofy girls' in his words. Basically, have fun during practice but get your job done, is what he tells us to do. If we're not doing what he wants us to do, he'll let us know. Communication is important with him, too. He wants us to let him know if we're not feeling well or something is wrong, and he will adjust the workout.
GS: How does the team culture here compare to other track & field teams you've been on?
ES: My high school team was more like, do your work and then afterward you can have fun. My club track team was super strict. There was no laughing or being silly during practice at all. Here, I like being able to have fun during practice and be goofy but still do our job, run our workouts how we're supposed to, and hit our marks. I think it helps us. Especially at meets, being strict and serious does not help us. We do our best when we're having fun.
GS: What are your personal goals for the year?
ES: I just wrote down my goal times today. I want to get sub-13 for the 100m hurdles and hit 57 in the 400m hurdles. I haven't figured out my exact goal for the 60m hurdles yet, but I definitely want to drop my time. I want to make it to finals in every race, and I hope to medal at Big Tens. I was really close last year. It would be nice to win another Big Ten team title, too. I think we can do it. Even though we lost some people, we're gaining some with our incoming freshmen and other people who were here last year moving up and performing better.
GS: Is there added pressure starting the year as defending Big Ten champions?
ES: I don't think so. With a track team, even if you do win, it changes so much. People graduate, events change, so many different things happen year-to-year because there are so many different events. I don't think there's pressure on us at all. We just have to be goofy girls and get our jobs done, and it could happen.
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Players Mentioned
