The opening competitions of a track season often fill runners with jitters and uncertainty.

It takes practice to get back into the routine of racing, jumping, throwing, or vaulting. That’s why every track season, Pomona-Pitzer track coaches Tony Boston and Kirk Reynolds hold a team Intrasquad meet. It provides the opportunity to get all of the early season jitters and blunders out of the way in a relaxed intra-team competition.

Last Saturday morning showed a glimpse of the talent on the Pomona-Pitzer women’s track team, and also some amusing blunders. Rachel Haislett PO ‘10 found herself running in three events, two of which were back-to-back. While competing in more than one event is common in track races, there is usually an ample amount of time to recover between races. Haislett, however, found herself finishing the two-kilometer race and then jogging across the track to the start of the three-hundred meter race.

“I knew there was another Rachel,” Haislett explains, “but on the entries sheet there was a Rachel C. and Rachel. I assumed I was the latter, but I was wrong. Kirk’s promised to designate all last initials in the future.”

Even with her packed schedule, Haislett was still able to finish second in both the women’s two-thousand and thousand kilometer races.

While most of the women’s distance runners competed in the one-thousand and two-thousand kilometer races, mid-distance runners raced in the three-hundred and six-hundred meter races, and sprinters competed in the three-hundred and one-hundred meter races. The purpose of the odd racing distances is to keep runners relaxed about the competition. Coach Reynolds is not looking for PR’s, but designed the event to get the Sagehens back in the routine of competing.

Reynolds hopes his runners will ask themselves, “What is the correct warm up? What should I do in between events? What should I do in the case of overlapping events? And have I been supporting my teammates?”

One of the most exciting competitions of the day was the show-down between Roxanne Cook PI ‘13 and Gracie Bialecki PO ‘12, a sprinter and hurdler, in the last stretch of the three-hundred meter race. Bialecki almost caught Cook on the backstretch with an impressive kick, but Cook was able to hold her off, winning in 48.4 to Bialecki’s 48.7. Cook, a cross-country All-SCIAC and All-Region runner, also showed off her speed by finishing first in the six-hundred meter race.

In the throwing events, Ellie Chestnut PO‘10 led her teammates in both the javelin, throwing 102’7, and in the hammer throw with a mark of 129’1. Impressive pre-season performances also came from MacKenzie Aries PI ‘12, with marks of 97’8 in the hammer throw, 97’8 in the javelin, and 88’9 in the discus.

Next weekend, the team will have their first “real” competition at the Pomona-Pitzer All Comers Meet. The entire team will compete, including jumpers and vaulters who missed Saturday’s Intrasquad, and 400-meter star Claire McGroder PO ‘10, who had to sit out on Saturday due to a minor injury. With a team filled with what Reynolds calls “veterans” and pre-season blunders out of the way, the season promises to be an exciting one.