After winning two consecutive Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) championships, the men’s track team looks forward to capturing a third tomorrow.

According to Joshua (“Josh”) Ebikwo, varsity runner and junior, although the team lost most of its seniors this year and therefore lacks senior leadership, the team still has plenty of potential.

“Even though we lost a lot of guys, I think that this team is definitely more group oriented team than we have in the past. It’s going to be a hard competition. But I’m really confident in the way we’ve been training, the way our focus has improved and the way our young guys have really been able to mature throughout the process of the indoor season,” he said.

However, Head Coach Ken Browner said inexperience is just one of the obstacles the team faces. According to Browner, the weather this year has slowed the team’s progress, especially in field events. In addition, how well the runners will transition from indoor training to outdoor training is still questionable.

“Training for outdoors is different compared to indoors. It comes down to spacing, and being indoors becomes crowded trying to share the facility with other sports.,” Browner said via email. Outdoor training is much more intense because you can train at faster speeds than you can indoors. Because of the tight turns and shorter straightaways indoors, you can never train at fast speeds.”

In preparation for the MIC, Ebikwo said he has been working on acceleration and endurance.

“I’ll be training for everything because we have a lot to look forward to, and being prepared is always a positive thing. I’m doing a lot of things that are sort of new to me.”

According to Ebikwo, the team has primarily been focusing on the fundamental strategies like positioning and mechanics.  He said while his team may not always be the fastest, often the outcome of the race comes down to  minute details.

“It’s never ,‘Oh, this team is faster, so they’re going to win,’” he said. “A lot of the times there are teams that are faster than our team, but we’ll practice sound fundamentals such as handoffs and making sure we can finish our races and good passes that other teams don’t necessarily pay much attention to because they rely on speed, and we end up winning.”

Although the men’s track team will be facing tough competition such as Ben Davis and Center Grove, Browner said his goals for the team are the same each year: to win the MIC and be the state champions.

Browner said, “The MIC is one of the toughest conferences in the state, and we cannot take anyone lightly. We are a young and inexperienced team that needs to work hard every day to get better.”