Lady Roadrunners to feature a more balanced team this season

Sedalia, Mo.-The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners track and field team have been busy preparing for the upcoming season. Head coach Brad Hagedorn likes what he has seen from his team recently in training.

"We were a little bit slow out of the gate in practice in September and October," said Hagedorn. "I thought we were a little bit behind but, we have rallied well. This week especially I thought we practice really wellI thought we practiced really well. We are starting to see some good things."

Coach Hagedorn has been impressed with the work of freshman Callie McWilliams of Shelbina, Mo. and Vivian Barton of Savannah, Mo.

"There is a reason why they are so good," said Hagedorn. "I'Janae Love and Stahrr Williams are returning sophomores who really look fit and strong and are practicing well along with Laiysha Freeman and   Jocelyn Nunez. Our sophomore class is doing well."

Coach Hagedorn expects the leadership on this year's team to come from his sophomore class.

"Our sophomores on the women's team are leading by example," said Hagedorn. "They are not as vocal as the sophomores on our men's team. They are practicing well."

The Lady Roadrunners will face a very competitive schedule. The season will begin with a trip to Maryville, Mo. to compete in the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic on Saturday, Dec. 6. After the holidays, SFCC will return to competition at the SEMO Redhawks Invite. After two more events in January, SFCC will open February at the NWMSU Bearcat Invite on Saturday, Feb. 7. SFCC will have three more opportunities to earn their qualifying marks before the NJCAA Indoor National Championships on Friday, March 6. The outdoor season will begin shortly after the completion of the Indoor campaign.

"Our schedule is a fair mix of very high-level competition and maybe a little more event appropriate competition," said Hagedorn. "We are adding a December meet, we haven't done that for a few years. I feel like it gives the kids something to look forward to this semester."

Coach Hagedorn feels that the strongest events for the Lady Roadrunners will be the horizontal jumps. He has some goals that he would like to see his team accomplish this season.

"We want to take as many student-athletes to Nationals as we can," said Hagedorn. "We want to put girls on the podium. That All-American award is pretty important, it shows how well you did nationally.

Hagedorn believes that to accomplish those goals you have to do a good job of recruiting talented athletes and do a good job coaching to keep them healthy and help them improve throughout the season.

Coach Hagedorn has added two new members to his coaching staff for the season. The track and field program has made some additions to their coaching staff with the addition of Steph Kuhlman who will help coach the long sprinters and longer distances, as well as the pole vault. Sean Carolan will join the staff in January as a volunteer assistant. Carolan will help with the short sprints, some horizontal jumps and the multi events.

"We have to be consistent in our training as well as our academics and rest and recovery," said Hagedorn. "I believe our training models will work as long as we are able to put the work in and stay healthy and consistent in training throughout the season."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics