Story by Alex Agueros, for The Muleskinner—

With the outdoor track and field season underway, select multi-event athletes will have their first opportunity to earn qualifying marks for the season with a meet today and tomorrow at Emporia State.

Today’s meet comes after the team sent athletes to Emporia last week to compete in the Emporia State Relays. Based on last week’s results, co-head coach Kip Janvrin hopes Central can find its rhythm this week.

“We definitely want to get more consistent, especially in the field events,” Janvrin said. “Unless snow or rain accumulates, we have to compete.”

Outdoor track is still in an early part of its season, and erratic weather has already affected the training habits for the outdoor athletes.

“We’re trying to get outside as much as possible,” Janvrin said. “But the weather has been very on again, off again.”

The weather may also have an effect on this meet. Junior Erin Alewine is looking at the Kansas forecast closely.

“We’ve been keeping track,” Alewine said. “I just recently added Emporia’s weather to my iPhone. The weather won’t be ideal, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”

Alewine, who is coming off of her first indoor national title, is hoping to earn an early qualifying mark during the meet.

More importantly, she is using the meet to gauge how far along her training has come.

“My overall goal would be to get a qualifying mark,” Alewine said. “It doesn’t have to be first in the nation, but I would love to get a qualifying out of the way.”

After battling injuries during the indoor season, Alewine explains that getting healthy is the key to assembling a strong score at the multi-events.

“For me at this point, it is putting solid events together,” Alewine said. “There’s pressure on getting a specific score. It’s just putting your events together.”

Through the poor weather and lingering injuries, Central still has a rightful sense of confidence going into the multi-events meet.

“The kids are making a lot of progress,” Janvrin said. “I think our kids will perform well.”