Underclassmen Ready to Step Up for Track and Field Teams

Eric Burns participates in the long jump at a meet.Last season, the Loyola women’s track and field team finished sixth at the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Indoor Championships, its highest place since Loyola’s first year in the MVC. The men’s team finished in seventh, a slight improvement from finishing eighth two years ago.

This season, the track and field team has 36 underclassmen on its roster, meaning 57 percent of the team is either a first-year or a sophomore in academic standing. Head coach Bob Thurnhoffer said the coaches have been focusing a lot on recruiting their version of the perfect Loyola athlete.

“We have a couple like intangibles … that we look for when we are recruiting…