With the cross country season coming to a close, the indoor track season is starting up once again. Although one season ends for a number of women’s cross country runners, a number of them compete in track as well. Junior Payton Scoggin is one of the notable runners that does both cross country and track and field.

Q: How does the transition from cross country to track and field work?

A: First we get a little break, like one to two weeks, which is nice. We rest our legs and prepare for track. Then we start with indoor track, and it kind of carries over, because I do distance events for track, so it’s pretty much like the same training, maybe like a little less, but we still have our workouts. It’s the same plan and coach gives us the workouts. And then during break, we have some to do on our own as well. And then when we come back, we keep training as a team. And then when we go into outdoor track, then they change a little bit more, because then it’s different events we have to practice for.

Q: Is training similar or different from cross country to track and field?

A: They’re pretty similar, because both are distance based, but the people that run the middle distance fence there get a little shorter, and they practice more speed, whereas I’m distance and as well as some of my other teammates. So those pretty much stay the same because it’s around the same distance for the races.

Q: What are the adjustments from going outdoors back to indoor for the indoor track season?

A: The main one is getting used to the air, because the indoor track air is pretty rough, because it’s very dry, so that’s a big change, I’d say. But since we’re distance runners, we still practice outside mainly, but we have a few workouts inside. So it’s pretty much the same, just we come inside if it’s too cold out or windy.

Q: So how do you just get adapted from outdoor to indoor, then outdoor again?

A: I’d say because indoor track is pretty long for college here. So you get pretty used to it towards the end and then outdoor from indoor the outdoor you have about a month without meets, so you can get pretty used to the change, and then you start practicing and doing more workouts outside something, get used to the outdoor track and but distance we still do workouts on the outdoor track during indoors sometimes, so then we used to both, so it’s an easier change I would say.

The Warhawk track and field team’s first meet of 2025 will be at Carthage College for the Firebird First Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 18.