The St. Joe’s women’s track and field team returned to action on Saturday, March 27 for the first time since March 2020 at the Atlantic 10 (A-10) Indoor Track & Field Championship. The team competed in the Penn Challenge at University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field. 

Graduate student Aliyah Stokes (100m), graduate student Tamar Bourdeau (400m), junior Briana Baier (1500m) and graduate student Bridget McNierney (400m hurdles) all earned top five finishes at the unscored meet. 

Before Saturday, May 2019 was the last time that the team competed in an outdoor track meet. 

For Baier, the return to action induces excitement, anticipation and uncertainty. She said that Head Coach Melody O’Reilly gave the team advice on how to approach the upcoming season.

“[Coach O’Reilly] talked about how you just have to rip the band-aid off,” Baier said. “It’s been a year since we’ve raced, and racing takes a different type of physical and mental headspace.”

According to sophomore sprinter Darynn Minus-Vincent, the yearlong offseason without competitive races was a challenge. To remain motivated, she relied on her teammates. 

“We really stuck by each other,” Minus-Vincent said. “We realized we were all in the same boat. That’s been a really big part of training for the last few months.”

Similarly, senior Abigail Silva, who competes in middle distance and distance races, said that the extended offseason made her realize the role that competition plays in the team’s atmosphere.

“When we’re competing, you can feel the positive energy and the intensity and the motivation in the locker room and on the track,” Silva said.

Silva’s offseason was shorter than many of her teammates’ offseasons. In February and March, Silva raced in an abbreviated cross country season that consisted of only two meets, one of which was the A-10 Championship at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia. There, Silva posted a time of 18:54 in the 5k, a career best, and was St. Joe’s top finisher in the race. Still, she said that the switch from cross country to track is one she is eager for. 

“I was definitely excited when we saw the end of cross country and turned to track,” said Silva, who did not race Saturday. “It was tough over the winter when I used to be training for the 800m or the mile, but I was still preparing to compete in 5k races.”

Silva is not the only student athlete to have her training regimen altered. Baier, who competed in the pentathlon and heptathlon in her freshman and sophomore years, will focus solely on middle distance races this season due to the flexible nature of the team’s schedule. She said that it’s best for her to focus on track events during a season full of uncertainty.

“It’s kind of a relief,” Baier said. “Obviously I’ll miss it, but at the same time I don’t have to stress about when I’m going to do [the pentathlon] and how I’m going to do it.”

Baier said that the entire middle distance training group has worked hard during practices. She said that she is excited to see Maggie Maguire compete for a final season. Maguire is a graduate student who is taking advantage of the NCAA Division I Council’s ruling to grant an additional year of outdoor eligibility for all spring sport student athletes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“She came back just for this season,” Baier said. “I’m so excited to see what [Maguire] does because I know it’s in her true spirit to give it her all in every race.”

The sprinter group is headlined by Stokes and Bourdeau, who are both graduate students. Minus-Vincent said that the freshmen and sophomore sprinters will look to make strides this season to fill the shoes of the departing upperclassmen in the coming years.

“It’s nice to see that the future of the track and field team is bright, especially since a lot of seniors are graduating,” Minus-Vincent said.

Those seniors and graduate students, according to Silva, are determined to make the most of one final go around.

“This is really the end for us,” Silva said. “Everyone has some unfinished business given that we didn’t have our season last year.”

The team, scheduled to compete in five races over the next five weeks, will return to Franklin Field on Saturday, April 3 for the Penn Big 5 Meet.