The Winona State University women’s track & field team traveled to South Dakota State University for their sixth meet of the indoor season on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9 and 10.

So far this season, two women have broken school records, in the 800-meter run and the 3000-meter run.

Junior Ali Johnson broke the school record in the 800-meter run.

“It was a good feeling. I have the outdoor school record for the 800, so it was nice to have the indoor one too. It has been a goal of mine for a while now and it felt good to get that out of the way,” Johnson said.

Sophomore Olivia Anger placed ninth in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:08.22, breaking the school record by two seconds. The previous record had been held by senior distance runner Raissa Hansen. Sophomore Nikki Staffen came in behind her, placing 16th in the 3000-meter, with a time of 10:26.66.

“Our first meet in January at Saint Mary’s [University] we won every event we entered, which was great. Our second meet at South Dakota State University, we placed second out of 19 teams,” Head track and field coach Mason Rebarchek said. “It was a pretty big meet. That went really well and since then we had two more meets, which both have been good. We’ve had a lot of great performances.”

Sophomore Johnna Patterson placed 21st in the 200-meter dash with a final time of 25.90 seconds followed by sophomore Alexandra Hutchison in 67th place with a time of 27.09 seconds.

Johnson herself competed in the 600-meter run, placing ninth in the 600-meter run with a final time of 1:39.70 with senior Madison Schroeder placing sixteenth with a time of 1:39.70.

Senior Amanda Schaefer, who competes in the high, long and triple jumper, commented on how the team has improved since last year.

“I think we have done really well. We have lost a lot of girls last year, a lot of graduated and a couple have transferred,” Schaefer said. “We have really adapted well to that. Our training has improved this year, we all seem to be making little strides in the weight room and at practice.”

Johnson discussed how the team is still a threat even though they have a smaller team than last year.

“We have overcome a lot with losing a few girls on the team. A lot of girls have stepped up and taken that leadership role. We have already proven to a lot of teams that we are still a threat even though we have a smaller team this year. All of the girls have stepped up and shown their best,” Johnson said

Johnson also shared predictions on how she thought last weekend’s meet might go.

“We are going to be in South Dakota this weekend, and this is probably our biggest meet of the season. A lot of schools are going to be there. We see a lot of talented girls there that we usually don’t see in the season,” Johnson said. “It is also on a 300-meter track and we don’t compete on those very often. We usually run our fastest times on those tracks and at big meets like this it makes good competition. I think a lot of girls will have a good week.”

In the 1000-meter run Hansen placed fifth with a final time of 2:58.76 and junior Hope Willenbrink placed seventh with a time of 3:01.13.

For this meet, only the team’s distance runners made the journey west. That was flipped the weekend before as the team traveled to Mankato, Minnesota with only the field athletes.

Rebarchek talked about how they start to see improvements this time of year.

“Based on our calendar, this is the time of year where people start to run faster. It’s not like football where you have to win every week and be at your best,” Rebarchek said. “It’s a lot of training up until now and it is this weekend where we start to see a lot of improvements leading up to the conference championship.”

The Warriors will next compete in the Maverick Invitational on Friday, Feb. 16 in Mankato, Minnesota.