Santa Clara to add official varsity track team

By Brian Witter

For the first time in Bronco history, the university will have an official NCAA track team by spring of 2005.

The team, whose creation was announced last month by Athletic Director Dan Coonan, will be the 19th intercollegiate sport to be played at Santa Clara.

"The idea for this really came about because we were looking for something to supplement the cross country team," said head track Coach Tom Service.

The program will primarily focus on distance running with the members of the Santa Clara cross country team acting as the first contestants at the various invitational track meets throughout the season.

Plans for the program have been in the works for several months as the NCAA had to be contacted and issued a request by Santa Clara in order to authorize any sort of competition by the school.

Service, who is also the head coach of the cross country team at Santa Clara, commented on how disappointing it was in years past when cross country runners would participate in spring track meets, but were not able to qualify for NCAA championships because there was no established Division I track program.

"We have all these athletes who train all year round but are limited by what they can accomplish," Service said.

Cross country is a sport conducted in the fall, whereas track takes place in the spring. Despite the fact that Bronco distance runners have been invited to springtime track events, they were never allowed to move onto further championship competition because of their lack of NCAA sanctions.

"This is really something I think everyone on the cross country team wanted for a long time," sophomore runner Lauren Swigart said.

With an official track season, the limitations on competitions and practices have been eliminated. Before Coonan's announcement, the Broncos had constraints put on the amount of time they were able to practice and the amount of meets they were allowed to attend after the cross country season had ended.

"What existed before was a sort of 'non-traditional' cross country season but now we've been legitimized which is great for recruiting," Service said.

"Before, we had potential student-athletes come and look at Santa Clara, and they'd tell us how much they liked our school and wanted to attend, but that they wanted to run track. Now we can provide these prospective undergraduates with solid initiatives."

In order to prepare for the upcoming season, the Broncos have been working out and racing at multiple locations around the South Bay, including the hills around Los Gatos, Bellarmine College Preparatory and Santa Clara's own Bellomy Field.

However, Coonan asserts that there are no current plans to build any sort of track and field facility in the near future.

"The transition from dirt to an actual track isn't too difficult," Swigart said. "Races are a lot faster and less strenuous on the body."

Although the NCAA championships in June are technically finals for both track and field, the Broncos will stick to the agenda from previous, "unoffical" years: long distance.

Santa Clara runners will be competing in the 400-meters, 800-meters, 1500-meters, 3000-meter steeplechase, 5,000-meters, 10,000-meters and possibly even the 4-by-400-meter relay.

"As of now, we don't really have plans to include sprinters or field event participants in our program," Service said.

"Santa Clara doesn't really have the budget at the moment for that sort of recruitment, but we do entertain the idea of attracting any interested and experienced students to race for us in the 400-meter event and up," Service continued.

The Broncos are slated to begin spring track competition in Davis at the Aggie Opener Invitational on March 12. They will likely see some major competition from Pac-10 schools like Stanford and USC as well as schools from conferences like the Big West, along with the usual WCC competition.

The NCAA instructs that each institution offering a track team must attend and compete in six meets throughout the season. The Broncos will vie for tournament position at eight separate invitationals from mid-March through May 27 when NCAA regionals are set to begin.

With March only two months away, Bronco runners are excited about the opportunity to see their hard work really pay off.

"We work hard all year and to have something to strive for at the end of the year now is especially satisfying," Swigart said.

* Contact Brian Witter at (408) 551- 1918 or bwitter@scu.edu.