By Andy Davis, WSU '01

Women’s Track team makes an historic appearance in the NCAA national championship meet

Until this past season, the Winona State University women's track team had not won a meet. During the 2003-04 indoor and outdoor seasons the Warriors won seven.

That is just one measure of the recent success of the team.

The Warriors gave the University of Minnesota-Duluth a run for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship in both the indoor and outdoor meets last year, but fell short in the indoor competition by 10 points and in the outdoor by 12.

"We had a goal of winning conference and we were close," Head Coach Kim Blum said. "A few things just didn't go our way."

Other high points for the WSU women's track program this past season included coach Blum being named NSIC Coach of the Year, and senior Tracy Knipple's (Stevens Point, Wis.) historic appearance at the NCAA national track and field meet in Boston, March 12-13.

Tracy became the first Winona State track athlete to make it to the NCAA nationals. Besides Knipple, athletes in seven other events were provisional qualifiers for the tournament.

The Warriors were well-represented on the All-NSIC list as well. Senior Jenny Cuculi (Milwaukee, Wis.) headed the list earning that honor by wining both the 100 and 200-meter dash events in the NSIC Championships. Cuculi was joined by teammates Gretchen Harty (Fr, New Prague, Minn.), Crystal Teske (Jr, Faribault, Minn.) and Diedra Faber (So, Plain, Wis.) in winning the 4 x 100 relay. Also placing first at the NSIC Championships was senior Jennifer Klatt (Emerald, Wis.) in the hammer throw.

According to Blum, the University of Minnesota-Duluth has perennially been the team to beat in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and with UMD's departure into the North Central Conference in all sports this fall, Winona State may be the team to beat.

"Now that Duluth is gone, it's kind of bittersweet," Blum said. "We didn't quite get them before, but that means we don't get another chance at them either."

In a team sport, one person cannot be solely responsible for tremendous improvement and a turnaround like the one Winona State has made. However, a great share of the credit can go to coaching.

"In a sport like track, you have to base the success on the girls that achieved it," said Knipple. "But if it weren't for Kim, these athletes wouldn't be here."

Blum took over head coaching duties for Christa Matter, who was also an assistant coach on the WSU volleyball team and a faculty member.

"We tried to line things up so that coaches were not working in two sports," said Winona State Athletic Director Larry Holstad. Athletes are practicing and training more weeks of the year now, according to Holstad, and both playing and coaching collegiate sports is more of a year-round activity than it used to be.

"Kim brought with her a passion for coaching track," Holstad said.

When Blum took over the track team there were fewer than 20 athletes in the program. In some sports, 12 or 15 athletes might be a good number. In track, it can be almost impossible to compete against programs that have greater numbers when the competitions consist of around 55 events.

Numbers alone do not lead to a winning team. Blum wanted to attract more and better athletes to the Winona State track program, and she wanted to get the right kind of people.

Now, there are 42 athletes on the WSU women's track team. The athletes can be more specialized in certain events and they do not have to go through a gauntlet of grueling events in a single meet.

There is also a family-like atmosphere within the team, with players rooting for each other and helping their teammates improve. The relationships that are forged between teammates are not limited to the track.

"Most of us lived in houses and apartments together," Knipple said. "We are definitely a close team. Some of my teammates are probably girls that I'll stay in touch with for the rest of my life, even though we only spent four years together.”

Initially, it was tough for Blum to find top-notch high school track athletes that wanted to come to Winona State. The program was not known as being successful, and one of the major barriers to recruiting efforts was the lack of one key resource for track athletes: a track.

While Winona State University does not have a world-class facility that can hold huge track meets, it does have an excellent fitness center and a staff of track coaches that are committed to getting the most out of every athlete.

"Would I like to have a giant, beautiful track?" Blum asked hypothetically. "Yes. But we're pretty darn good without one. It would be very nice to be able to host a meet, but we just go out and do our thing. We would rather stay focused on the positives."

And there are plenty of positives to look at. Last season, the Warriors set new records in 30 events, finished second in the conference indoor and outdoor meets and qualified eight women for the NCAA national championships.

During a recruiting visit with a prospective student athlete, Blum often shows results of some of her athletes from a before and after perspective. The numbers speak for themselves. Women who join Winona State's track team will improve, and the athletes that want to improve are the ones Blum is after.  "I recruit heavily," Blum said. "You can't just expect good athletes to show up on your campus."

In addition to the results and improvement athletes in the program have shown, many recruits are attracted to the team environment at WSU.  "Kim really promotes that atmosphere, but a lot of it is the athletes," Knipple said. "It's a really great group of girls that she brings in every year. She asks current team members for our opinion of the girls after their recruiting visit and she's open to our suggestions and comments."

A strong group of returning athletes for the 2004-05 season will keep the program strong for years to come, but they will have some big roster holes to fill also. Ten seniors, four of whom were NCAA national qualifiers, will not return, and the loss will not only be felt in meet results.

"They've been there every step of the way in this process and they're a big reason why these changes are happening," Blum said. "They brought a lot of leadership to the team."

More athletics can be found at:   http://www.winona.edu/athletics/

Last Modified: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:18 by Rhone Richard