Miners looking to improve at mid-way point

By Daniel Ornelas

The Prospector

After competing in two events in back-to-back weekends, UTEP took a two-week break to prepare for its third meet of the indoor season when the Miners travel Feb. 3-4 to Lincoln, Nebraska for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational.

Head coach Mika Laaksonen hopes that after a good week of practice, the team will continue to improve in every event.

"I'm very pleased with what's going on with track, all the running events. Runners had nice progress from the first meet to the second meet and most of them are where we want them to be," Laaksonen said. "We're going to get some new people for this meet. They haven't competed for us yet. We expect good contributions from those guys."

Sophomore sprinter and Clemson transfer Janice Jackson has performed well during the early portion of the indoor season, earning a top-three finish in all of her events that included the 4x400-meter relay and the 60-meter hurdles.

"Well, coach told us to just visualize five times you running a faster time and it has to be like the perfect race as far as technique. My biggest problem is getting off the blocks," Jackson said. "So for me, when I went home last night, I just envisioned five times that I came off the blocks, sprinted in between the hurdles the way I was supposed to and really just ran my hardest to the finish line."

Laaksonen said that the team could improve in both the throwing and jumping events and expects some of his veteran athletes to provide leadership as well as some of the new comers to step up.

"I think they could still provide more leadership. We have so many new athletes that it puts a lot of pressure on our veterans," Laaksonen said. "I'm not displeased either. We also have some new athletes that are very mature and professional. They also provide leadership by example."

El Pasoan and senior thrower Matt Dudley is looking to bounce back after regressing in the second meet.

Dudley gave his best performance in the first meet Jan. 14 in Boise, Idaho with a mark of 16.95 meters but followed it with a 16.37-meter throw in the Jan. 20-21 Albuquerque meet.

"He'll be ready to perform at the conference meet and physically, we'll see how it goes. If his technique holds up, I don't see any problems," Laaksonen said. "I don't see why he can't win the shot put event at that meet."

Dudley stressed technique as a focal point going forward and doing so will help him peak at the right time and have his best performance during the C-USA Championships.

"In the shot put, especially one to two foot variants is usually common. It's always the little small things like technical niches that might be off that day," Dudley said. "Once it comes together, which should be at the end, then that's when you see your peak."

Laaksonen said he expects the athletes to continue to improve and is not worried about them peaking too early rather than not peaking at the right time.

The C-USA indoor championships are only a few weeks away as they'll be taking place Feb. 25-26 in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Miners have only two events left before C-USA, the one at Lincoln and another Feb. 11 at the Texas A&M invitational in College Station.

Daniel Ornelas may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.