The Syracuse track and field team looks poised for another rewarding indoor season after finding success in its first three meets. The team heads to Penn State on Friday and will look to continue the trend.

Syracuse had seven athletes with top three performances in the Gotham Cup on Jan. 10. The men’s team scored 79 points and finished third at the Upstate Challenge on Saturday, while the women’s team scored 66 and took fourth.

Neither the men’s or women’s team had a score at the Terrier Invitational, yet senior Jaquan Holland thrived individually. He tied his school-record time of 21.09 seconds to take third place in the 200-meter dash and automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Although Holland’s times have improved over the past year, he still isn’t satisfied.

“I want to break the school record [of 21.09 seconds] again,” Holland said. “My goal for the 200-meter dash is to run at least a 20.8 seconds time.”

While Holland has set his own personal sights high, SU head coach Chris Fox says it’s too early to talk about his team’s progress and any goals for the season.

“We’ve only begun to scratch the surface,” Fox said, before his team departed for the weekend. “We’re just going to continue to train hard.”

SU boasts a strong core of returning runners, as well as talented freshmen.

Holland leads a men’s team that already has had at least one senior, Donald Pollitt, junior, Max Straneva, and freshman, Joel Hubbard, take first in an event.

Sophomore Kevyn Hoyos almost made it a clean sweep when he finished second in the mile run at the Terrier Invitational on Saturday.

Senior Molly Malone anchors a young women’s team that features a combined 21 freshmen and sophomores on the roster. Malone credits the development of the young runners, and believes they will only improve as the year progresses.

“Last year (the women’s team) had a pretty good incoming freshman class that are now sophomores, and they’ve just developed since then,” Malone said. “This indoor season, I think, will go really well.”

The team looks to build upon its recent success in previous meets and heads to Penn State for the Penn State National Invitational with some momentum.

At last year’s meet, Syracuse had seven runners place within the top three at their respective races, including Malone.

Although three of those runners have graduated, Fox aims to prepare his team to surpass that number this year. Fox plans to keep his team in check, even with all the distractions surrounding this weekend, including the men’s basketball game against Duke and the Super Bowl.

“[The basketball game] won’t be a distraction,” said Fox. “We’ll run well and then we’ll come home and watch the Super Bowl.”

Published on January 28, 2014 at 1:39 am