Charging Forward Into Every Competition

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Training for an indoor track season during the winter always carries a creative flair for college coaches. In normal years, they often map out unique ways to get athletes on the road in between snowfalls, and they crunch workouts into facilities occasionally shared by and with other teams. Their methods work within limits to tap limitless potential within their athletes, and meet weekends are further designed to push constant improvement within competitive settings.

All of that is tricky in a normal year, but the 2020-21 season added a degree of difficulty to Boston College men's track and field head coach Matt Kerr. His team deserted Chestnut Hill with the rest of the student population around Thanksgiving and didn't return until the season start was imminent in late January. Then, the mild winter caved into several snowstorms that week and made roads inaccessible. Indoor tracks around the city were likewise shut down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

None of that bothered Kerr or his team. They seized their gifted opportunity to run for the maroon and gold, and they are making the most of their shortened winter season. This weekend, the first culmination of their month-long, winding journey hits the track at Clemson with the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship.

"It's been totally crazy," Kerr said. "There's nothing to compare it to. I think every day you hustle, and it's hectic, and it's certainly not boring. There's a lot of preparation just to get to practice and a lot of setup and takedown. You do it everyday, and add in testing, but everybody is dealing with it while it's the busiest time of the schedule. We're all in the same boat, and we all just go a million miles an hour. We take it with that grain of salt, and we relish our opportunity to compete."

Yet the Eagles are savoring the frenetic pace because they just wanted to compete and represent their team. Fall cross country season ended at Halloween, and most students, athletes included, deserted campus at Thanksgiving. December started with a pair of 60 degree days and remained well above freezing through Christmas. It pushed 50 degrees on New Year's Eve and only dipped below 40 during the day on a few occasions. The lack of snow left roads bare, but the optimal winter conditions evaporated in early February - right after everyone moved back onto campus.

It complicated BC's training because Kerr couldn't break his team into training groups to run on the roads surrounding campus, and the usual training grounds were closed entirely. So the team entered the Alumni Stadium bubble and made the most of the situation by marking a 200-meter oval around the turf with cones.

"We split the group into smaller parts," he said, "and they train together with their masks on every day. If you're doing anything high end with speed work, anything very technical or specific to a sprint or jumps or even some of the distance events, you're just not able to get that work done. So a lot of it was base fitness, endurance building and that type of running, which is good in the long run, but we needed the meets themselves to get in the (other) work."

It forced BC to confront its schedule with an unmatched and unprecedented gusto. It laid out three meets over consecutive weekends in February as COVID-19 forced the sport to pivot around indoor restrictions and limits. The usual local competitions canceled, but the Eagles traveled to Virginia Tech and Clemson for two weekend meets. They used those as building blocks before a dual meet at Army's West Point campus preceded this weekend's ACC Indoor Track & Field conference championship.

Each represented the next stage, and the Eagles improved every weekend. Sean Sullivan placed eighth at the Doc Hale Invitational at Virginia Tech on February 6 with a 4:09.92 time and shaved three seconds for a fourth place finish the next week at the Tiger Paw Invitational at Clemson. Marcus Manson's 50.25 in the 400 placed sixth in his heat and finished 39th overall at the Tiger Paw Invitational before Stephen Windisch and Jackson Sigalove ran 52.09 and 52.28 against Army West Point. Steven Jackson clocked a personal best in the mile against the Black Knights, and John Carter finished second to him within two seconds as the distance team clinched five of the top six spots.

"The majority of the team wasn't race ready when they got back (to campus)," Kerr said, "so we spent three weeks training them and getting fully ready for Army. We took Sean to Virginia Tech, and he ran well down (at Blacksburg) before running really well against Clemson. He improved a ton in a week, and he and Marcus really blazed a trail for the other guys. Then the Army meet went really well, and we had a lot of great performances, so they all feel like they are as prepared as they can be for the ACC's."

It primed the team for a fearless approach to the ACC meet against nationally-ranked programs within the conference. Last year had Sullivan in the conference lexicon as he competed in the mile run, but the COVID-19 outbreak occurred right before the indoor season ended at the IC4A Championship. This year, he enters the ACC race with eyes on a podium run.

"They're fired up," Kerr said. "They're so excited. With the challenges of this year, they've really understood the simplicity of the sport and how they can focus on some of the simple aspects of competition. It's become really enjoyable, and they'd much rather get out there and feel the hurt and pain of competition than to be sitting on the sidelines.

"We're doing things completely different than we would have done in any past season," he said. "That just gives everybody, coaches and athletes, a great perspective on what truly matters. Arriving at this competition and getting excited about it is an opportunity that's not lost on anybody. It's been embraced by this entire team."

The meet will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra on Friday from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and again on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Live results will be available throughout the championship by visiting FlashResults.com.

Thursday

5 p.m.: 800m prelims - Colin Trigani (heat one); Friend Weiler (heat three), Denis Gallagher (heat three)
8 p.m.: Distance Medley Relay final

Friday

11 a.m.: Long Jump final - Tyler Heller (flight one)
4 p.m.: Mile prelims - Erik Linden (heat one); Steven Jackson (heat two), Sean Sullivan (heat two); John Carter (heat three)
5:20 p.m.: 400m prelims - Khalfani Green (heat one); Jackson Sigalove (heat two); Ryan Russell (heat three); Marcus Manson (heat four); Stephen Windisch (heat eight)

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denis Gallagher

Khalfani Green

Steven Jackson

Erik Linden

Marcus Manson

Ryan Russell

Sean Sullivan

Colin Trigani

Friend Weiler III

Stephen Windisch