DePauw men's track begins their indoor season conference meet tonight at Denison University, with first-year participants leading the way in many events.
The men's track team is entering the meet projected to finish in seventh place out of nine participating teams. Despite this rank, many individuals on the team are looking to make a statement and provide a basis for future improvement.
Sophomore Jon Good is one of many newcomer qualifiers for the men's team in both the 200-meter dash and the 4x200 meter relay.
"This is my first season ever in track," Good said, "and I have been adapting perfectly from playing soccer my whole life. I'm putting out some very good 200 times that ended up qualifying for conference."
Good hopes to make an immediate impact, as the team looks to improve on their eighth place finish last year at the indoor conference championship.
"For DePauw we are going in strong," Good said. "We're hoping to put up some great times and score some points."
Good is not the only upperclassman making a splash in his first year participating on the track team. Sophomore transfer Paul Watts runs the 5-kilometer and 3-kilometer events and is looking to achieve a top three finish in the 5-kilometer run.
"My expectations, as are most of my teammates, is to go out there, be competitive and score the points necessary to move us ahead," Watts said. "I fully expect to surprise our competitors and turn some heads."
Adding to the lineup of successful new members, first-year Cameron Stewart looks to improve on a disappointing personal season on the big stage. Stewart qualified for both the 4x400 meter relay and the 60-meter hurdles.
"I have had some pretty bad races in terms of hurdles, minus the one race I ran where I qualified for conference," Stewart said. "I think that I'm just over thinking and psyching myself out just because I have a high expectations for myself, but I feel that it will all come together at conference. And I'll run the way I should be."
Despite the season he has had, Stewart appreciates the opportunity in front of him to establish himself in the conference.
"It's an amazing feeling knowing that I'm doing this as a freshman so it makes me even more excited for the future," Stewart said.