The Southeast Missouri State’s track team is headed for the OVC championships next week and are satisfied with their results so far.

“I like where we’re sitting with our men and women teams. Our men are right there in a hunt for a conference championship. Our women are right there in the top 3”, coach Eric Crumpecker said.

Recently, the track team had a meet last Friday and Saturday where they competed at the Memphis Invitational at the Billy J. Murphy track complex.

Kristen Carter opened up the meet Friday with a long jump of 4.94 meters.

McKenna Baker then added a personal best hammer throw of 44.33 meters for 15th. For the men’s, Stephen Zagurski and Logan Bloomquist finished second and third respectively with throws of 58.59 meters and 58.13 meters.

The Track team is preparing for the OVC championship coming up on May 10 to May 12 at Tennessee Tech, the host.

“We’ve been practicing every day, these last couple weeks we’ve been backing off the weight a little bit to try to get a little more hop in our step,” Sophomore Logan Bloomquist said.

Engelking has been resting leading up for the OVC championship coming up.“I took last week off, and i’ve been working a lot with the athletic trainer trying to get in the best shape possible,” Sophomore Jonno Engelking said.

The track team has had a long season. Their first meet was back on December 8th, where they competed against SIU in a dual meet at the Student Recreation Center here at Southeast. Now five months later they’re preparing for an OVC championship coming up.

“Most of the work is done at this point, everybody has been at this since after Labor day we started up practice, and it’s been ten months of working on events and no one is going to get better in these last two weeks, we're trying to back up and get ready for the big conference meet,” coach Eric Crumpecker said.

The Redhawks look to finish strong on the season and have a strong finish like last year.

“We’re hoping to win gold like we did last year, it would be a huge accomplishment for the team,” Blomquist said.

Last year the Southeast Missouri men and the Eastern Illinois women claimed titles, repeating their accomplishments from 2016. For Southeast, it was the program’s eighth overall men’s track championship, and third in the past four seasons.

The Redhawks competed in the 2018 OVC Indoor Track and field Championship at Eastern Illinois on February 23rd and 24th.

The Redhawks will look to cap off the 2017-2018 on a positive note. They’ve had 16 meets this year and are looking to get well rested before the big conference meet.

“Everything is already basically done, we’re trying to fight off injuries and keeping everyone healthy for the big meet,” coach Eric Crumpecker said.

Southeast will look to rest up and get ready for the OVC championship on May 10-12 at Tennessee Tech, where they’ll look to capture the crown.