Gearing up for the girls track and field indoor season, new head coach Bryan Musolf looked to lead a consistent program that was centered around improvement for his team.

“He has certain expectations for us as a track team that allows us to come together more often and make sure we stay on top of our tasks like coming to practice, getting there early and just trying to let us know that it’s not about the [performance],” said sophomore Audrey Lam. “It’s about the way that we improve.”

Musolf was named the new head coach of the girls track team this year. Girls indoor track took place from Jan. 24 to March 18. The outdoor season started on March 28 and is scheduled to end on May 21. In May, the team is scheduled to compete at sectionals and state.

The indoor season was utilized as a preseason to train, build fitness and prepare runners for the outdoor season, Musolf said.

“We had to try and fit in a bunch of tough workouts quick,” said Musolf. “Some people got hurt. And so to slowly build that fitness so it’s consistent and sustained is tough to do, and indoor season helps with that. So to be honest, a lot of us trained through our meets.”

In order to prepare for state in May, the team trained through important meets during indoor season.

Junior Abigail Reese said in a phone interview that indoor track helped prepare her for the first outdoor meet on April 1.

Reese felt indoor track was more of a challenge for running because the indoor track had more curves, Reese said.

According to Musolf, the team focused less on the results of its indoor meets and more on the team’s improvement.

“If we know we didn’t compete our best [in indoor], but then we pop off a good race in May … then we’re excited, and what happened in indoor did not really matter because we’re here now,” said Musolf. “We arrived at the spot we want to ultimately be, which is to try and make it to state.”

According to Lam, at the end of each meet, Musolf selects a Spartan of the Meet, an athlete who demonstrated an outstanding performance.

“It doesn’t mean that they beat their personal record or they did [extremely] well, but they showed qualities of a Spartan, like teamwork or good sportsmanship,” Lam said.

Musolf’s energy and perseverance has reoriented the team’s mindset to want to keep teammates responsible and encourage one another, Lam said.

“It’s all about the effort that you put in, and I think that directly correlates with how we have a mindset to approach things now,” Lam said.