University of Minnesota Athletics
Bingle Previews Sun Angel Classic
4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
MINNEAPOLIS - Director of women's track & field and cross country Matt Bingle shares his updates on the Gophers as the team heads to the Sun Angel Classic this weekend.
On entries and expectations for the Sun Angel Classic...
Bingle: Hopefully, it's a good team weekend. It'll be the first time outdoor that we'll all be together. We're anxious for that, to get everybody on the same page. It'll be good to see who we are as a group and for all of us to watch each other, support each other, and really get our team thing going. The next meet after this weekend is Kansas, and that's a scored meet so we really want to go after it then. There are only seven or eight distance runners going this week. We are resting some people -- it's not quite everybody competing, but it's closer to our full group.
On performances to watch for this weekend...
Bingle: We'd like to see everybody take another step in their events. More people are going to do their true events this week for the first time. Emerald Egwim is going to run the 400m, and Madeline Strandemo is going to run the 1,500m. Hopefully we will put together our 'A' 4x400m relay and really make a go at it, even though the race is at 9:30 p.m. [11:30 p.m. CT].
For some of them, it'll be the second time that they get to do their event, so in that way, it will be good for them to make some more improvements. The 4x100m will go again, and the hurdlers will get another repetition. The biggest thing is taking the next step. I think we have a good shot to be a pretty good team if they continue to do the right things and stay focused, but they have to continue to push forward and not get caught up in other things.
On last weekend at the UCLA Legends Invitational...
Bingle: It was a good weekend. It was good for people to get some reps in their events. We took some nice steps with several lifetime-bests and season-bests. We've still been training pretty hard, so it was encouraging to see those things. I thought they competed well for the most part. There are obviously some things that they need to get better at and continue to improve on, but I thought they had a pretty good weekend. This weekend will be more competition, so I'm excited to see how they rise up to that.
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Players Mentioned
