What's the difference between indoor and outdoor track?

If you know anything about outdoor track, it should not be hard to understand the intricacies of indoor track. As we move into a colder winter season it is imperative for most athletes to move their sports indoors.

Track athletes are constantly training. They practice outdoors in the fall and spring and indoors in the winter.

"The training that these track athletes have to go through is much different than in other sports," head coach Fred Samara said. "They are running and training all year to keep in shape."

In the fall, the distance runners in track generally participate in cross country. In the winter the men's and women's teams move indoors in preparation for the final athletic season in the spring, in which they compete outdoors. Also, the amount of events rises from 16 to 18 when they move back outdoors following the winter indoor season.

"The players who compete in outdoor and indoor stay the same each year," Samara explained. "The indoor season gives the athletes a chance to stay competitive throughout the year."

The outdoor season is generally considered more important than the indoor one.

"Schools in certain geographical locations don't even run indoor track," senior sprinter and women's team captain Chanel Lattimer said, "so most people consider indoor a warm-up for outdoor track. People are more worried about 'peaking' [running your best times] during the outdoor season."

Each indoor season ends with the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. This year it will be held at Harvard and will take place at the end of February.

Princeton's men's team has won this event nine of the last 10 years. The women have not won since 1998 when they blew away second-place Brown.

In the fall, men's cross country was competitive despite its number three runner, sophomore Jim Flannery, falling ill. Many on the team, including Samara, considered this a building season.

Season prospects

This year the men have only 70 athletes competing compared to the 92 athletes last year. This group, which features only six seniors who are expected to make large contributions, includes 18 to 20 freshmen who will need to adapt to the college game.

"It is a big transition for seniors in high school to compete in college because of the increased size of hurdles, weights and distances," Samara said. "We have a lot of youth, so that will be an issue that we must deal with."

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Some of the senior stars on this year's team include distance runner Austin Smith, sprinter and long-jumper Dwayne Banton, high-jumper Mike Weishun, and middle-distance runner Mike Kopp.

The women's team lost some great talent from the 2004 graduating class, including some key Heptagonal championship contributors. A large recruiting class this year, however, gives the team optimism for the near future.

"We expect some exciting things from them," Lattimer said. "They definitely add depth to the team, which is necessary in track and field."