The women’s track and field team began its outdoor season with a first place finish at the Hoosier State Relays. The team followed up that win with two more individual meet victories against Ben Davis and Pike, with these meets coming just after its indoor State championship victory this winter.  While the victory is an impressive accomplishment for the women’s track and field program, Ariel Hune, track and field member and senior, said the team still has a lot to prove.

“Winning the indoor State championship was a big deal for us but not a huge deal,” Hune said. “The outdoor State championship is more important because it is more publicly recognized and means more to our team.”

The outdoor State championship takes place at the end of the women’s season on June 1. Although the State meet is not until June, Hune says the team will use the next month to make sure it is completely prepared for the biggest meet of the year.

“It is not too early for us to start looking ahead to the end of the year,” Hune said. “However, we want to focus on each individual meet and not slip up on those.”

The women’s track and field outdoor State championship takes place at Indiana University and will be a completely different atmosphere than the indoor State championship earlier this year. On an outdoor track the turns are tighter resulting in quicker times for the team’s runners. Hune said she competes in a 200-individual medley and said the difference between the indoor and outdoor atmosphere will have an effect on the feel of the meet.

“In outdoor meets, it feels good to breathe in the fresh air and it contributes to faster times,” Hune said. “While running in an indoor meet it is easier to get choked up and running doesn’t feel as free.”

While the women’s team is confident because of its recent indoor State championship victory, it still has areas to improve. According to Hune, the women’s track and field team earns the majority of its points in running events and needs to put more of a focus on the field events. However, just because the stakes are higher doesn’t mean the team will train any differently to reach its final goal.

“The training we did for the indoor State championship will be similar to how we trained for the outdoor State championship,” Hune said. “I don’t think we need to change something that worked in the past.”