UNLV looks to improve upon last year's WAC runner-up finish.
Oct. 26, 1999
UNLV?s move into the Mountain West Conference has stirred excitement throughout all of its athletics programs, and the Rebel track and field team is no exception. The Rebels kick off the 2000 indoor track and field season on January 15 at the NAU Invitational.
Plenty of optimism surrounds the program after last year?s strong finishes both indoor and outdoor. UNLV left the Western Athletic Conference with a bang, finishing sixth as a team at the indoor championships and second at the outdoor championships. Although most of the WAC?s track and field elite joined UNLV in its move to the MWC, the narrowing of the field from 14 teams to eight should work in the Rebels favor.
?Our goal right now is to be in the top two in the conference,? says eighth-year head coach Karen Dennis. ?Our program has gotten consistently stronger and it is just a matter of time before we breakthrough into the nation?s elite. We are interested to see how much we can close the gap (between UNLV and) BYU. Before there were 14 schools, now there are eight, so we should be able to generate more points.? Her philosophy is similar to that of the Rebel football program, in that to win a conference title, she will need to win on offense, defense and special teams.
?Historically, our sprinters have been the strength of our team,? Dennis says. ?We?re going to call that our offense. When our distance people can get us points, that keeps other teams from scoring. They are our defense. We?re going to rely on our field event personnel to be our special teams. They are people who can come in at a critical moment and score vital points.?
That approach led to success last year. Beside the impressive team finishes, three Rebels ? Michele Davis, Jessica Marable and Alicia Tyson ? qualified for the NCAA Championships last season. Marable completed an impressive junior year in which she earned All-America honors in the shot put, both indoor and outdoor. She headlines a list of five All-WAC athletes that will return to lead UNLV in 2000.
Offense
The UNLV sprinting corps has traditionally been the strong arm of the team, and Dennis refers to it as her ?offense.?
?In leaving the WAC, we lost a lot of good teams from a speed perspective,? says Dennis. ?The Texas teams ? TCU, UTEP, Rice ? were strong in the sprint events, and we feel that the loss of competitiveness there will allow more of our athletes to score. Because the sprints are our strongest area, I think the move to the Mountain West will help us.?
She will look to Davis to carry on that tradition. Davis capped what may have been the most outstanding campaign by any Rebel freshman with her selection to the USA Track & Field Junior National Championships team last summer. She specializes in the 400 meters and finished second in that event nationally, allowing her to advance to the Junior Pan Am Games in Tampa, FL.
The national honors just add to her long list of impressive accomplishments. In her first season at UNLV, Davis set school marks for freshmen in the 200 and 400, swept both the indoor and outdoor WAC Freshman of the Year awards and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
?Although Michele came to us with good speed and strength, she is still young and still improving,? Dennis reports happily, since any improvement over the success Davis enjoyed last year could only be positive. ?There?s no reason to think she won?t continue to improve this year and throughout her career here.?
Dennis is also excited about the return of senior Ayanna Hutchinson, who did not compete last year, but posted some of the team?s top times in 1998-99. She continually trimmed her times over the course of that season and used her redshirt year to get stronger.
Senior Colleen Rhemm also returns after an improved year in which she lowered her times and gained experience. She picked up some valuable hurdling experience last season and again could be called upon to contribute there. Rhemm and Hutchinson will compete in the 100 and 200.
Nickeisha Charles, a talented freshman from Arima, Trinidad, and Californians Erin Dangerfield and Heaven Yoshino were all recruited by Dennis to help carry the sprinting load while finding their niche in the Rebel program. Charles was part of the Trinidad national championship team in high school and still appears in the national record books for her contribution in the 4X400-meter relay.
?We have three freshmen who bring very impressive credentials with them,? Dennis says. ?And, like Michele, they are still green. We are excited about having athletes who have already demonstrated the ability to succeed at the high school level with much potential still to develop.?
Defense
The deepest part of the Rebel lineup is the distance crew with seven returners and five newcomers. A solid nucleus of versatile athletes returns, with most of the runners able to compete from 800 meters to 10,000. Plus, they will hit the track season in shape after running cross country throughout the fall under the direction of third-year distance coach Mary Shea.
?What the Mountain West lost in sprinters speed it makes up for in the distance events,? Dennis reports. ?This is easily the strength of the conference, with teams like BYU, Utah and Colorado State who are among the best not just in the conference, but nationally. These schools are at a natural advantage because they train at altitude, which puts us at a disadvantage and means that we will continually be challenged in the distance events.?
Senior Eulista Clemons is the Rebels? top middle-distance runner. She was an All-WAC performer in the 800 meters both indoor and outdoor and should challenge for the conference title this season.
?Eulista is a tough competitor. She?s always there when it counts,? Shea says, referring to Clemons? impressive finishes at both of the conference championships. She finished fourth in the 800 at the WAC Indoor Championships and sixth at the Outdoor.
Three other seniors ? Stephanie Davidson, Sharlene Downing and Kathryn Goetz ? have come a long way in the offseason and will be counted on for points. Davidson has demonstrated throughout the fall what a summer of workouts can do as she has trimmed her time in the 5,000 meters by more than a minute. Downing was hampered by injury through the summer, but should excel in the 800 and 1,500 meters when the track season begins. Goetz, who transferred to UNLV from upstate rival Nevada, Reno, is eager to return to competition after sitting out in 1999. The trio will race the spectrum, but will primarily concentrate on middle distances from the 800 to the 3,000.
?All three of these girls made remarkable strides last season in terms of imporving their personal bests,? Shea claims. ?They will carry that into this season, and, as upperclassmen, we expect them to contribute points at conference.?
The Rebels will look to third-year runner Katie Barto to handle the long-distance duties. Barto is a hard worker and extremely versatile, running everything from 800 meters and further. The increased depth in the distance group should allow her to focus better on the longer races.
Sophomore Jenni Nelson headlines an impressive group of distance newcomers. Nelson, a Seattle, WA native, transferred to UNLV from the University of Montana, and has been among the frontrunners since. She will be an all-conference threat in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters.
Special Teams
?Simply, we rely on Jessica,? Dennis admits, and for good reason. Marable is the top returning shot putter in the conference, and looks to carry her success a step further this season. She finished eighth in the country in that event both indoor and outdoor and shattered the school records along the way. She also competes in the discus, and improved her own school record in that event as well.
Three other experienced throwers return to give UNLV a fearsome attack. Senior Anna Hedegaard, junior Nicole Martinez and sophomore Trisha Naumu all gained experience in 1999 from both competition and teammate Marable and could make the Rebels one of the conference?s dominant forces in the throwing events.
?Everyone got better last year, and they should all get better this year,? projects Dennis. ?We have some good, young throwers who have an excellent example with which to work.?
Field events coach Dr. Qingyi Zheng, in his third year, will have his hands full rebuilding the Rebels? jumping squad. All-WAC long jumper Laren Parker has departed and only senior Heather Steadham returns. Steadham is an exceptional all-around athlete who finished second in the heptathlon at the WAC Outdoor meet last year. She has the best marks of all the returning athletes in five different events, including the high jump, long jump, hurdles, javelin and heptathlon.
She will have the benefit of a training partner this season in freshman Chantel Yates. Yates, a highly-touted recruit from Chattanooga, TN, was a four-time state champion in the pentathlon and was named an AAU All-American. Dennis looks for her to make an immediate impact at UNLV.
?In the past, we?ve had to count on our heptathletes to handle the everyday duties in both the long jump and high jump,? Dennis says. ?However, this year our recruiting has strengthened the team in these areas and will allow Heather and Chantel to put the necessary focus on all their various events.?
Newcomers Emily McCarter and Tianika Sharrieff will help make that possible. Both will compete in the high jump, and Dennis believes that with work on their mechanics and strength, they will give UNLV some solid performances in an event that has been overlooked in the program for several years now.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for the Rebels last year was sophomore pole-vaulter Charlotte McGee. McGee cleared a personal best and school-record vault of 10-6 at the WAC Outdoor Championships to earn a much needed team point. The Rebels managed only a three-point edge over third-place SMU, thanks in part to McGee?s performance. Two new faces - Honolulu, HI native Michelle Mizo and volunteer coach Enoch Borozinski, could give UNLV the edge it needs in the pole vault and a vicious one-two punch.
Schedule
In her eight years, Dennis has never loaded her schedule with easy competition, and the 2000 slate is no exception. Although not completely finalized, the Rebels plan a couple of trips through the West during the indoor season. Visits to Northern Arizona and Nevada, Reno are annual favorites while the Western Collegiate Invitational in Colorado Springs, CO and the Cannon V Classic in Indianapolis give the Rebels a chance to see how they stack up against national competition. All of those will be in preparation for the inaugural Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships in Colorado Springs on Feb. 24-26.
UNLV fans will get two opportunities to see the Rebels compete in Las Vegas. They kick off the outdoor schedule with the UNLV Open on Mar. 18 before hosting the annual UNLV Invitational on Apr. 7-8. The schedule shows several opportunities to compete throughout California in April, including the challenging Cal-Nevada Championships in Berkeley, CA. The regular season closes at the MWC Outdoor Championships in Provo, UT on May 18-20.
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