bleedCrimson.net will be conducting interviews with Aggie women's track and field head coach Orin Richburg throughout the 2008 season as Coach Richburg builds the Aggie track and field program. In this week's interview Coach Richburg recaps the Aggies' first outdoor meet last weekend and talks about the upcoming meet in El Paso this weekend.
bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk a little bit about last weekend's outdoor meet?
Orin Richburg: We opened up fairly well down in Tucson. We had a few good things that happened. Jordan Veney got a regional mark in the disc. Randi Grimes did a real nice job in the hammer and javelin, just missing by a few centimeters of getting a regional qualifying. We had a chance to see our short relay 4x100, not too bad, we ran a 47 plus there. Leah Benton did a real nice job in the 100 and 200. Ingrid Flores did a real nice job in the 5000. Caprice Bradshaw ran real well in the 1500. We had some other people that did a fairly good job.
We're still trying to put everything together in terms of what we're doing and hope that we just continue to grow a little bit with the results that we got here. This weekend we go to El Paso for a meet, the young ladies will be back today, this is our spring break, and we'll have practice today and tomorrow and then shakeout on Friday and then travel on Saturday for the El Paso meet. We're just trying to see exactly where we are and some of the things we're doing and trying to get a little more consistency out of the young ladies so that we can step forward and try and get ourselves ready for the WAC championships.
bc.net: Based on the performances of the team in the indoor season, how do you think they did in the first weekend of outdoor?
OR: Not too bad. Now instead of having to run four turns, now the kids only have to run two turns. It makes a little difference, gives them a little bit bigger atmosphere to look at. The distance runners have to run so many laps indoors, say for a mile they run eight, outside they only have to run four. It gives us an opportunity again, we had some pretty good performances, something to build on. It gives the young ladies an opportunity to get a little more consistent. In terms of what we did inside and what we're doing outside, the things are falling in place for us. A little more work, a little more consistency and a little more understanding of what it takes to be successful. This should give us an idea of where we are and what we need to do. Devin Brooks did a decent job in the hurdles this weekend, Candice Allen, Michelle Bernard in the hammer and the discus throw. It gives us an opportunity now to evaluate and get the young ladies an opportunity to see where they are and what they need to do in order to be successful and by doing that it makes a big difference in what we have to do to get ready for the outdoor championships.
bc.net: Can you talk a little bit about what you're looking for out of your team this weekend at the El Paso meet?
OR: There'll be some good competition there. This is a meet that'll have some collegiates as well some unattached runners in there. So we'll get a chance to line up against some people that are pretty good as far as what they do in their events. We have to hope that our kids can go in and have the focus and understanding and put the work in in terms of what we have to do to be successful. And build on what we did last weekend, try to get a little faster in the short relay and try and do a little bit better job in the short sprint. Our distance kids will probably change up a little this week. The kids that ran the 5000m will probably do some things a little different. We don't want to continue to run the five every time, we'll maybe drop down and run a 1500m or 800m. We want to change up and get a little different feel. That way they get a little leg speed under their belts that way when they do go back up the 5000m and eventually when we get to the conference meet some of the young ladies will be running the 10000m it'll make a difference there.
We're excited about it. We'll get a chance to work a little bit on our field events and in the jump area. We've gotta do a little bit better job in the long jump, triple jump and high jump and the pole vault. We've gotta work a little bit more and hope that some of the young ladies can get a little more momentum down the runway and hit the board or hit their takeoff point and do some of the things we need to do in order for us to be successful.
