You’ve probably heard about or seen a track meet at some point in your life, but indoor track is a whole other story. First of all, the competition is a lot tougher. In outdoor track, you usually only compete against schools your size; whereas in indoor track, you could be competing against much bigger schools with greater competition. Secondly, an indoor track is an entirely different size! A standard outdoor track is 400 meters long, in comparison to indoor tracks, which are only 200 meters long. So if you are running an 800m race on an indoor track, you’d actually be running 4 laps instead of 2.
Another difference related to indoor meets is that athletes have to pay to participate and must provide their own transportation. The school does not cover anything which is yet another distinction from outdoor track. The price to enter indoor track meets can vary depending on location and competitiveness. For example, the Susquehanna Meet - which several Juniata runners competed in - had a total cost of $20. This is in comparison to the State College Meet (with a banked track and better competition) which costs $65 for one event.
At the last two State College meets, Juniata runners Sylvia Brubaker and Wyatt Stroup competed. Sylvia ran the mile race with a time of 5:34.01 placing her in 16th place. She ran the 800m with a time of 2:25.93, finishing in 3rd place. Wyatt ran the 3,000m with a time of 9:03.43 landing him in 5th place. He also ran the mile in 4:33.64 finishing in 3rd, and the 800m with a time of 2:07.52 putting him in 4th place. Joey Bomberger also competed in the first meet running the mile race in a time of 4:39.76, with a 9th place finish.
Meanwhile at the two Susquehanna University meets, runners Joel Hardin, Josiah Barner, and Carolyn Heidenreich competed on Sunday. Joel finished his second mile heat with a time of 5:37.32 landing him in 16th. Josiah ran the mile in a time of 5.25.16 placing him in 27th. He also ran the 400m in 58.74 with a 22nd place finish, and the 800m in a time of 2:17.55 ending in 6th place. Both boys ran the 3,000m with Josiah finishing at 11:15.80 in 9th, and Joel running in 11:41.05 finishing in 10th. Carolyn Heidenreich competed in the mile with a time of 6:06.59 placing her in 6th, and also the 400m ending in 5th place with a 1:07.25 finishing time.