The Simpson Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams are off to a strong start, setting a slew of new records as they recently finished their indoor season. 

Sophomore Teghan Booth is a middle-distance/distance runner and has been one of the top names for the women’s team as she was part of the record-breaking distance medley relay team. She has also been able to put her name on the record board in multiple individual events.

Booth focuses on the 1500-meter run, the 3k and the 5k during her races in which she is now in the top five times in Simpson Women’s Track and Field history. 

The distance medley relay team placed third at the indoor conference meet and their time also put them on the record board as the fourth fastest time overall. The medley comprised of first-year Kate Huisinga, sophomore Aryss Forbes, first-year Ava Carder, and Booth as the anchor.

“We’ve improved quite a bit,” Booth said when describing the team. “We brought in a couple of freshmen that helped a lot for indoor, at least.”

The women improved to sixth place as a whole at the American Rivers Conference (ARC) indoor meet compared to their ninth-place finish last season.

Junior Max Cleveland has been a common name in the news for the Men’s Track and Field team, as he became one of the three men’s athletes to qualify for the national indoor championships.

“Personally, I had wanted to make nationals for a very long time and I accomplished that this year, going for a school record would also be a big goal for me,” Cleveland said. He came very close to his school record goal as he was just 0.01 second off from breaking it.

The men kept their place at sixth in the conference meet as they placed the same last year.

“I think it’s been great so far. Obviously, there are things we want to improve but by and large, I think we’ve hit a lot of goals we’ve wanted to and there’s still some goals we want to in the future and going forward,” Cleveland said.

The men’s and women’s teams are now preparing for the outdoor season, and making the switch from indoor to outdoor could seem difficult, but Cleveland explains that it is not too much of a problem for them as they do not have an indoor track to train on and are mostly outdoor.

“Being outdoors on an actual track surface is really big as far as the training we can do and having more space to train obviously gets more endurance work for a lot of the athletes,” Cleveland said.

Booth said the women’s goals for the outdoor season are to keep improving their placement in the conference and for her personally to achieve all-conference honors in her events.

“They add a couple of events, so it will be kind of fun to see how me, personally, and as a team, we can improve on the times and depth in those events,” Booth said.

The two teams start their outdoor season on April 1 at the Wartburg Outdoor Select in Waverly, Iowa.