TRK | Saint Mary’s Adding Indoor Track for First Time Beginning in 2023
12/23/2022 10:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
MORAGA, Calif. — The 2023 Track season is getting an expansion for Saint Mary's. New for the first time this upcoming year, the Gaels will be adding Indoor Track as a DI sport, with competition beginning in January and running through February, and potentially March.
Aside from the obvious difference of competing indoors versus outdoors, the indoor track is smaller than what the Gaels will see in outdoors competitions. Indoor tracks are 200-meters compared to 400-meters outdoors. This creates a variety of new events for Indoor season that are not featured in Outdoor season, including the mile, 60-meters, 3,000-meters, and the distance medley relay, to name a few.
Another significant difference is the lack of preliminary meets before the NCAA Championship. In May, there are East and West Prelims that runners will qualify for throughout the Outdoor season. Those prelims will advance runners to the NCAA Championship in June. During Indoor season, there are no prelims and qualifying marks are based on times during the regular season as opposed to performances in the prelims.
"The addition of Indoor will help us be more competitive with recruiting and enhance the student-athlete experience," explained Marty Kinsey, head coach of the women's programs at Saint Mary's. "The majority of Cross Country teams in the West Coast Conference currently sponsor indoor so we will be in-line with our peer institutions. The support of the administration has been fantastic. It's a good time to be a Gael."
The evolution of the Track program at Saint Mary's has seemingly been exponential in the last 10+ years. Coach Kinsey was hired in 2010 as the program's first full-time head coach, and oversaw the program's elevation to DI-status just two years later. It only took four years of DI competition before the Gaels had their first NCAA qualifiers in Zach Hansen and Gabe Arias.
2022 was a significant year as well for the program, as the two programs officially split, with Kinsey overseeing the women and Harlan Lopez taking over as head coach of the men. This allowed the track programs to more than triple their scholarship allotment, and laid the foundation for the addition of Indoor.
In their inaugural Indoor season, the Gaels will be racing in four invites, beginning with the UW Preview on January 14, hosted by the University of Washington. SMC will make two trips to Portland for both legs of the Portland Invite on January 22 and February 5, and the season winds down with the Whitworth Invite in Spokane, Washington on February 10. Should any Gaels qualify for the NCAA Championship, that would take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 10-11.
Aside from the obvious difference of competing indoors versus outdoors, the indoor track is smaller than what the Gaels will see in outdoors competitions. Indoor tracks are 200-meters compared to 400-meters outdoors. This creates a variety of new events for Indoor season that are not featured in Outdoor season, including the mile, 60-meters, 3,000-meters, and the distance medley relay, to name a few.
Another significant difference is the lack of preliminary meets before the NCAA Championship. In May, there are East and West Prelims that runners will qualify for throughout the Outdoor season. Those prelims will advance runners to the NCAA Championship in June. During Indoor season, there are no prelims and qualifying marks are based on times during the regular season as opposed to performances in the prelims.
"The addition of Indoor will help us be more competitive with recruiting and enhance the student-athlete experience," explained Marty Kinsey, head coach of the women's programs at Saint Mary's. "The majority of Cross Country teams in the West Coast Conference currently sponsor indoor so we will be in-line with our peer institutions. The support of the administration has been fantastic. It's a good time to be a Gael."
The evolution of the Track program at Saint Mary's has seemingly been exponential in the last 10+ years. Coach Kinsey was hired in 2010 as the program's first full-time head coach, and oversaw the program's elevation to DI-status just two years later. It only took four years of DI competition before the Gaels had their first NCAA qualifiers in Zach Hansen and Gabe Arias.
2022 was a significant year as well for the program, as the two programs officially split, with Kinsey overseeing the women and Harlan Lopez taking over as head coach of the men. This allowed the track programs to more than triple their scholarship allotment, and laid the foundation for the addition of Indoor.
In their inaugural Indoor season, the Gaels will be racing in four invites, beginning with the UW Preview on January 14, hosted by the University of Washington. SMC will make two trips to Portland for both legs of the Portland Invite on January 22 and February 5, and the season winds down with the Whitworth Invite in Spokane, Washington on February 10. Should any Gaels qualify for the NCAA Championship, that would take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 10-11.
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