Jarret Eaton had made it to the preliminary round of the NCAA tournament. The opportunity to realize the dream of so many athletes stared him the face. An inner feeling, however, held him back.

‘It was nervousness, for me, the first time,’ said Eaton, a junior hurdler on the Syracuse track and field team. ‘Now I know what to expect, I know what the competition is going to be like. I just know how it’s going to be.’

Eaton qualified for the preliminaries in both the indoor and outdoor championships last season but failed to advance in either round, as the nerves got the best of him. He said his personal goal for this season is to finish in the top five in nationals. Head coach Chris Fox has seen the changes in Eaton’s attitude and anticipates a different result this year.

‘I think he’s matured now, and the next week (after the NCAA preliminaries) he ran his best race of the year,’ Fox said. ‘He’ll be fine. He should be the favorite at the Big East championships in his event.’

Eaton is one of several returning upperclassmen who highlight the 2010 men’s track and field squad. Since returning from Winter Break, the Syracuse track and field team as a whole has attained 15 individual titles. The first-place finishes have come between the Jan. 15-16 SU Welcome Back Invitational and this past weekend’s Cornell Upstate Challenge.

Eaton’s teammate Bernard Bush, a graduate student, earned All-Big East honors last year and placed fifth in the NCAA Outdoor Regional Championships in the long jump.

Michael LeBlanc, another graduate student on the roster, also earned All-Big East honors as a sprinter during his senior year.

The trio spearheads the Orange men’s team. A squad Coach Fox has a great deal of confidence in. A team that, like Eaton, is ready to break out.

‘We have a really good sprint and hurdle crew and a very strong distance crew, especially on the men’s side,’ Fox said. ‘We have really good men’s horizontal jumps, too.’

The season begins with the indoor portion of the schedule, which concludes with the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13 and 14, and then moves on to the outdoor meets, culminating in the NCAA Outdoor National Championships from June 9-12.

On the women’s side, three standouts highlight the Orange roster. Melissa Romero, a senior jumper, returns from a season in which she finished seventh in the Big East Outdoor Championships in the high jump and 12th in the same event indoors.

Romero said that she has changed much of her technique since her freshman year and that she plans to use her new style to improve her performance during her senior season.

‘I had a problem with high jump where I was traveling down the bar,’ Romero said. ‘My landing wasn’t good, it just wasn’t good technique at all. My coaches directed me and I’ve become more consistent when it comes to jumping and making the normal heights that I should be making. And my approach has gotten a lot better.’

Outside of the actual competitions, Romero, whose personal goal is to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Regional Championship, takes on the role of leader for the underclassmen.

‘Just knowing what it was like to be a freshman and being a D-I athlete, I think it’s good to just give them some advice, especially in competition,’ Romero said. ‘Going out there against D-I seniors is really nerve-wracking.’

Katie Hursey, a junior distance runner, further bolsters the women’s team. In only her second year, Hursey advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Regional Championships and broke the school record in the indoor mile run.

Fox said that sophomore jumper Ieva Staponkute was one of the highlights of the team and that she will be one of the strengths of the women’s side as the season progresses. In her freshman year, Staponkute made it to the Big East Indoor Championships and placed fourth in the triple jump.

With such varied and numerous talent, SU’s track and field team has the potential to earn several trophies at the end of the season. Still, Fox is keeping his expectations for the team in check.

‘I would hope that, for the men, we have a good shot to get a trophy in the Big East meet,’ Fox said. ‘On the women’s side, I’d like to finish anywhere from fourth to eighth. We want to be in the top half. We’re a little young this year, but each meet we’ll get better. The team will improve with each meet. That’s the nature of our sport.’

azmeola@syr.edu

Published on January 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm