Coach Jason Hudson plans to continue the “Train smart, not hard” motto for the 2004 season of men’s and women’s outdoor track.

“This year we have a short season with four meets, so every practice day is important,” he said. “Oberlin will host no meets because of the condition of the outdoor track.”

With returning track athletes from last outdoor season and this past indoor track team, Hudson feels the teams will find success in the current season.

The Yeowomen ended last season in fourth place. This year they “have the ability to finish in the top three,” Hudson said.

Seniors Shannon Houlihan, who was named NCAC Outstanding Women’s Field Athlete of the Year, Faye Doherty and Amber Coleman and juniors Teresa Collins and Leslie Bosworth will set the pace for the women’s squad.

“The biggest competitors on the women’s side will be Allegheny, Denison and Ohio Wesleyan,” Hudson said.

Houlihan took All-NCAC in two events in outdoor track for 2003 and came out of the indoor track season with her fourth first place finish in a row for the triple jump by reaching 36’ 7.75”. Those marks qualified her for national competition.

Houlihan will be accompanied by Collins, who qualified with a time of 58.72 in the 400m preliminaries run, breaking the school record. Collins walked away with All-NCAC in three events last outdoor season.

First-years Danielle Brooks and Sarah Newman are some of the newcomers expected to add to the list of noteworthy performances from the women’s team.

The previous season for the men’s team came to an end with the Yeomen in tenth place at the conference championships.

“Ideally we are looking to finish seventh or eighth. Basically we are just looking to improve,” Hudson said.

Two-time defending 400m run champion junior Bret Petersen, junior Dewayne Evans, senior Jeremy Lane and NCAC indoor track pole vaulting champion, sophomore Shean Perry aim to lead the men to victory over their main competitors, Hiram College and Earlham College.

“We’ve gone from having only eight to nearly 16 male athletes on the team this year, which should boost the overall performance,” Hudson said.

Some fresh faces on the team are first-years Matt Ferris-Smith, who finished eighth in the 800m run at the indoor track championships this year and Travis Grout, finishing third in the 3000m run at the Oberlin-hosted meet.

The positive outlook for the next few weeks, helped by what Hudson called a “good performance” at Duke University over the break, will be put to the test on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Mount Union College.