Sonoma State Star

Issue date: 3/22/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Courtesy // www.sonoma.edu/athletics Senior Alena Cook.

If you have considered taking a nice run around Sonoma State's track lately, you would most likely find it occupied by SSU's women's track and field team. In the past few weeks, the team has really stepped up their training and has recently placed themselves in some of the school's top all-time records. During the Aggie Open in Davis, California Mar 11-12 the Seawolves performed exceptionally well. The high spot of their success was from the 4x400 relay team (Elizabeth Kain, Roxanne Sechler, April Montgomery and Alena Cook) who won their event with a time of 3:59.85. These four ladies not only won the relay event, but also continued their performance in their single events as well.

Freshman April Montgomery was a standout performer, placing third overall in the 800 meter with a seasonal best time of 2:19.88. She also earned herself 10th all-time in SSU history for the event. Sophomore Elizabeth Kain, who ran leadoff for the relay team also stepped up her efforts in the 400 meter, with a lifetime best recorded time of 58.82 and finishing fourth overall. The time also moved her to 8th all-time in SSU history in the 400 meter relay. With the top school records well within reach, expect impressive achievement from these two underclassmen in the future.

Seeing that having motivation and dedication pays off, the track and field team, composed of mainly inexperienced underclassmen, find inspiration from the only two seniors on the squad. Especially three time All-American Senior Alena Cook, who earlier this season acquired a national qualifying time and second place finish in the squads kickoff meet in Claremont, California. Over the four years Cook has become very driven towards success, and continued her efforts in 2006 with another steady performance in Davis. After anchoring for the winning relay team, she went on to place first in the 400 meter hurdles, 100 meter hurdles and the 400 meter relay leg. She now holds the number three all-time record for the 400 meter hurdles in SSU's history.

"Confidence is built slowly, but Alena has always stepped up to the challenge. That is why she has gone from a decent high school hurdler to one of the best in the nation," said SSU's track coach Jim Hiserman.

Since restarting both the track and field and cross-country teams at SSU in 1995-96, Hiserman has played a key role in the development of both of these programs not only as a coach, but as an educator and mentor as well. In the past 13 years of coaching around different colleges in the U.S. Hiserman has developed Division I and Division II All-Americans in a variety of different events. In the past seven years at SSU, he has coached seven All-Americans and five different conference champs. Throughout his years as coach, Hiserman's philosophy for success has been twofold. To student athletes he stresses developing the mind as well as the body in such a challenging sport such as track and field. "Track is by nature a conditional sport. That means conditioning the mind as well. You cannot hide from yourself when it's time to dig down and call upon whatever you have inside to finish a workout or interval run," adds Hiserman.

Though many girls on the team this season are young and may not understand the mind-body connection that Hiserman is talking about, he has proved that he is dedicated to helping them focus on the long and enduring process of developing a strategic mindset and balancing that with setting realistic goals for themselves. Athletically, the girls are definitely in great shape. The team has been focusing more on endurance and consistency, which shows in their performances these past few weeks.

The team will travel to their next event Saturday Mar 25 for the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento, California.

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