Feb. 19, 2008

DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Dayton track and field team is coming off the best finish in program history at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships last Saturday. With a second place finish in the A-10 Championships, a First Team All-Conference performer in freshman Johnna Zaccari and two first place finishes during the indoor season, head coach Adam Steinwachs has already achieved great success this season. DaytonFlyers.com sat down with Steinwachs to ask him a few questions about the team's recent success and future goals for the program.

Saturday, the track and field team recorded the highest finish in program history with a second place standing. How does it feel to have done so well in your first A-10 Championship meet?
It feels great. I knew we could finish second if things went our way. It was very close through most of the meet and in fact, Rhode Island had a strong start and out scored us in the weight throw and high jump 36 to 18. It should have been an even draw, 25-25 or close to it so URI had momentum early on. To our team's credit, they didn't give up and slowly but surely were hitting seasonal and/or personal best performances, scoring where we didn't expect it and gaining momentum."

Twelve Flyers has personal bests and UD finished in the top five in 11 events at the meet. Were you surprised by any of the student-athletes results?
I was happily surprised with most of the student-athletes performances. Throughout the meet they could sense they were in it and by the end person after person put it out for the team. Our freshmen were among those athletes to do a great job Saturday. It was expected and they definitely delivered.

What was the team's reaction to the second place finish?
I told the team in a meeting two weeks before the A-10's that we could end up second, but it would be tight. I also said we could just as easily end up fifth or sixth depending on how bad they wanted it and believed they could do it. They were told this all the way up to the meet... but I still think they were a surprised that we placed so high.

Is finishing second in only your first year, being ahead of schedule so to speak, in your goals for this program?
I don't think this finish is ahead of schedule based on who we have on this team. It's a matter of keeping expectations realistic and relative to our competition within the A-10. We should be in it again in the outdoor season. It'll be close again but we should be in a fight for a top three finish. It's absolutely a building block for the future. I'm happy we finished second, proud of the effort put forth, but focused on getting better.

What are your goals for the outdoor season?
For the outdoor season we'll need to fight to maintain second place. The rest of the A-10 is going to want to knock us down and we cannot become complacent. This was a good starting point, that's all. If second place was good enough for our coaches and student-athletes I wouldn't be at UD.

UD will return to action on March 15 in the team's first outdoor meet of the season. The Flyers will travel to Conway, South Carolina for the CCU Invitational.