While most sports teams on campus have only one season per year, Weber State University’s track and field teams have two: indoor and outdoor.
The men’s team had a good finish at the Big Sky Conference Championships last season, finishing in fourth and third in the indoor and outdoor seasons, respectively, with strong performances across the board, including the 4×400 relay team taking home the conference title in the indoor championships.
Last season, the team featured Josh Trafny and Cody Canard, who finished second and third in the javelin at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. Afterward, the two competed in both the NCAA Championships and the United States Olympic Trials. Trafny and Canard graduated last spring, so the team will be without them this season.
“They’ll be missed greatly,” head coach Corbin Talley said. “Josh and Cody were both just awesome. They worked really hard and they were fantastic leaders for us and like on and off the track. They scored a lot of points for the conference, and it was so fun being part of their journey just from both of them.”
Talley is excited for the team’s middle-distance runners, including junior Rodee Brow and senior Orion Barger, who finished second and third in the 400m dash outdoors last season, with Brow coming only one-hundredth of a second off of the champion.
“We put a lot of work into the 400, 800 and 200 distances,” Talley said. “We were thrilled with the strength we saw from Rodee and Orion. We also redshirted Alex Wheeler last year, so we have Alex back as well.”
After a successful cross country season in the fall, senior distance runner Peter Visser is confident in the team’s mentality going into the season.
“Our mentality is always to perform at our best,” Visser said. “This is a sport of marginal returns and delayed gratification. We’re here for the process, and this is the year when the process pays off.”
The team will look to improve on last year’s marks during these upcoming seasons, which includes a home meet at the Stromberg Complex on Jan. 10-11.
