Records are Meant to Be Broken

For the student-athletes competing in the 2013 Atlantic Sun Indoor Track and Field Championship winning was simply not enough.

Nineteen athletes surpassed previous marks in the two days of the 2013 A-Sun Championship. Four athletes alone ran a faster men’s 800m time than had been previously recorded in 2010.

Setting such high standards is not something that comes without hard work. The A-Sun student-athletes put long hours in year-round to get to where they are.

Sometimes that means trying something new to find your range. Sometimes that means doing something out of your comfort zone. Strenuous. Tedious. Exhausting work to put mind over matter and become the best.

ETSU’s Ifrish Alberg, a new A-Sun record holder in the 60m, was all too aware of what it would take, it was just about making the change.

“In August, I went to my coach and said if I want to run fast this year I need to do longer distance running.”

He started training with the 400m group to build strength and it paid off well. Alberg’s 60m time of 6.68 beat the previous time of 6.75 that was set by the Bucs James Ranier in 2006.

Alberg explained that this change in the team’s workout regimen made him confident the Buccaneers would go one, two, three this year.

“Winning this championship for the second time and defending my title is just amazing. It shows that our work paid off.”  

Alberg sets his standards high and breaking this record raises the bar for future athletes not only in at ETSU but in the A-Sun.

One of Alberg’s teammates K’Vonte Scott set a high mark for competitors to try to beat in the heptathlon by crushing the previous meet record by 206 points.

A sophomore, Scott says his most challenging events are the shot put and the vault. With both of the events he is either on or off so in order to make it to the next level he will have to focus on those two more than anything.

On the women’s side Jacksonville’s Bienna Freeman took the 800m record with a time of 2:09.92; nearly two seconds faster than the previous record in 2006.

Freeman said that the key to her success was a lot of distance, speed and endurance training.

“There was a lot of build-up to get to this point in the season; it took a lot of hard work and training,” Freeman said.  

The athletes that broke the meet records are not settling for where they are.  

The next step?

Qualifying for nationals. And several of them feel that they are within reach.

Kennesaw State’s Andre Dorsey’s record breaking marks in the high jump and triple jump pushed him into the national ranks.

Dorsey said, "I give so much credit to my teammates. I had some hamstring problems coming in but they never let me give up. Now I'm ready to go to nationals."

“Today feels really good, but I was really hoping to qualify for national and I didn't quite get it,” Freeman said. “Hopefully we’ll head to another meet so I’ll have one more chance.”

Scott also knows that he may have two more seasons of indoor track and field but he was ready for nationals this year.

“This meet I was really trying to meet the national mark which is 5400. I fell shy but that just means I will have to work harder to get it next year.”