In our sport, it seems like college programs are only cancelling track and cross country programs and not adding them. But we have big news from Catawba College as they look to add Indoor and Outdoor Track in addition to their Cross Country program!
This won't be the first track and field team at the university. They had a team for 60 years until it was cancelled in 1987. They had a lot of success, winning 9 conference titles in their tenure. The original program only had a boys team, this will be the first girls track team in school history.
Their conference, the SAC, sponsors 18 sports with Outdoor track being added in 2013 and the addition next season of Indoor track.
Current XC Coach Jason Bryan will coach the track teams. Bryan stated, "I'm excited to be a part of bringing track and field back to Catawba. In addition, this will help our cross country program because track and field is a needed component to compete at a regional and national level."
The addition of track and field in addition to cross country is huge for a program, not just for training, but offering three running seasons versus one is huge for recruitment. Coach Bryan notified me by email that "we will be aggressively recruiting the state of North Carolina."
You can find the school's official announcement here.
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In our sport, it seems like college programs are only cancelling track and cross country programs and not adding them. But we have big news from Catawba College as they look to add Indoor and Outdoor Track in addition to their Cross Country program!
This won't be the first track and field team at the university. They had a team for 60 years until it was cancelled in 1987. They had a lot of success, winning 9 conference titles in their tenure. The original program only had a boys team, this will be the first girls track team in school history.