Women’s 4x400 Breaks School Record

Six seconds. Six seconds of sweat. Six seconds of pain. Six fewer seconds of running allowed the indoor track 4×400 girls relay team of Michelle Leaman (leadoff), Samfee Doe, Debbie Keiser, and Tara Altizer the ability to break the previous school record of 4:28 on Feb. 9. Each girl ran about a 63-64 second lap to win their heat at the Christopher Newport University track meet in Newport News, VA with a time of 4:22, which places them at third in the ODAC standings. With this time they beat Bridgewater and Washington Lee, but Roanoke still factors in to the standings. Seth McGuffin, EMU’s head track coach, has the women aiming at the goal of second-place.

Going into the race, Doe and Altizer’s quads were hurting and Michelle’s shins were aching, but they proceeded to run the best time ever in EMU’s indoor track history, a time which “every coach in the league is shocked that they ran,” according to McGuffin. He commented, “Aches and pains are because we’re inside all the time, and we go through it every year.” McGuffin encourages the girls to weight train, ice, and stretch to lessen pain that is engendered by the tight turns, and this strategy seems to have worked as is evident by the new record.

These sprinters have scheduled practices that vary depending on injuries and what areas they need to work on. They usually start off with warm-ups and stretching, then move on to intervals such as five 250 meter sprints, or they may practice block work or hand-offs. They occasionally practice outside if the weather is nice enough.

This women’s team is not immune to feeling down about team scores and personal times. “They get down, but they go out every single day,” said McGuffin. Overall, the team’s attitude has changed in part because of this race. Samfee Doe stated, “We didn’t think we could do it, but this race showed we can do it.” Altizer seconded this, saying “It showed us what we could do and how we got there together.”

Looking at the beginning of the season, Seth McGuffin said, “I knew they would [beat the record],” because of the talented women’s team that he has. Coming in to the season, he already knew that Leaman, Keiser, and Altizer could run because they had proven it in previous years, but the one new factor was Samfee Doe. “Samfee has been the surprise runner,” he commented. He also said, “This is one of the first years we’ve had a nice women’s team…. This year we have nine girls that can run.”

Seth and the women are looking forward to outdoor track so they can work more on their speed and improving their times. The next indoor track meet is the Mason Dixon Classic this Saturday, Feb. 23 at Christopher Newport University.