T&F SEASON PREVIEW: Track and Field gets into full swing
DEFIANCE, Ohio - The track and field program at Defiance College starts the 2024-25 season with a home indoor meet on Saturday with their sights set on continuing to make a splash.
The Yellow Jackets have produced at least one individual conference champion on the men's and women's sides in each of the last three years. Entering a new conference will present a new challenge for the program but the team has reloaded once again to keep that trend alive. Defiance is also entering the second year under head coach James Rollins with assistant Juan Scott back as well.
Season Outlook
After both indoor home meets were canceled, the Yellow Jackets officially opened with their first full-team meet on Friday with a visit to Findlay. The indoor season sunsets at the end of February with the WHAC Indoor Championships set for Feb. 14-15 followed by nationals. The outdoor portion of the schedule kicks off during the opening weekend in March until the WHAC Outdoor Championships on the first weekend of May. DC will be traveling to nearby colleges Tiffin, Manchester, Trine, and Ashland throughout the course of the season.
A successful season in Coach Rollins' eyes would be having multiple athletes qualify for the indoor or outdoor national championships. With the team on the rise, Rollins has been honed in on consistency in training and academics as a primary focus of the team. "Consistency builds confidence. Confidence yields results," says Rollins of the team's current motto.
About the Team
There are a host of new faces around the lanes for the Yellow Jackets. However, Coach Rollins expects big things from his two returners. Senior thrower David Heidelburg is in his second year and has exhibited growth and maturity from year one to now. On the women's side, sophomore Shelby Clements returns with several more female runners alongside her that can really propel that end of the program.
Defiance successfully recruited a number of in-state talents to reload the stables. J'Vontae Barnes, Anthony Lawson-Beachum and Zyon Woods are all hurdlers from the Dayton area who come in with great expectations. Barnes and Woods each reached the OHSAA state track meet last spring in their respective events while Lawson just missed the cut. The Yellow Jackets also welcomed home several former Defiance Bulldogs, including Eli Fortman and Mira Horvath, who bring in high ceilings. One shift for DC's program has been attracting more distance runners to round out the capabilities of the team in a meet setting. Coach Rollins is encouraged by the distance runners who have entered the program and displayed positive results through the cross country season.
Conference Outlook
Indiana Tech is a national powerhouse with 17 combined national championships between the indoor and outdoor, men and women, including four straight indoor titles by the women's team. In the WHAC, the Warriors have won every men's conference meet (indoor and outdoor) since 2013 while their women's program has won all but three conference meets since 2011. For Defiance, Coach Rollins expects the 4x400 men's and women's relay teams to be very strong along with the men's hurdles of 400 and 110 meters with great potential for Woods, Barnes, Fortman and Horvath to challenge for individual conference titles.
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