Inside LU Athletics: Winter weather playing havoc with spring sports

It was like taking away the toys from the kids on Christmas morning.

Lawrence University track and field coach Jason Fast was all set to have his team do its first workout on newly renovated Whiting Field last week when the sleet and snow buried the blue track with a blanket of white.

“It was a pretty rough blow, not just to myself but to the whole team,” Fast said. “Everyone was pining to get out on the brand new track and run on it.”

The snowstorm that hit the Fox Valley last week has made the past few days difficult for the Lawrence track, baseball and softball teams. The Vikings have been forced to go back indoors to work out and schedules have been shuffled in an effort to get some games completed.

“It’s not the first time in my career that we’ve come back up north and haven’t been able to play,” said Lawrence baseball coach Jason Anderson, whose Vikings played eight games in Florida during spring break.

“Baseball is a game designed to play every day so you have to get playing. With Midwest Conference play coming up, we needed to get some games in.”

The Lawrence baseball team had been scheduled to play North Central (Minn.) University at Whiting Field on March 26 but those games were pushed back to Friday and Saturday. With the field still covered with snow, Anderson is taking his Vikings on the road to play some “home” games.

The Vikings are headed to Anderson’s hometown of Grinnell, Iowa, to play three games with North Central this weekend before heading to the University of Chicago for a doubleheader on Sunday.

Fast and softball coach Kim Tatro will not have to go quite that far to get some game competition.

The track team was scheduled to compete at the UW-Oshkosh Invitational on Saturday, but snow at Titan Stadium has moved that meet to Carroll University.

To prepare for that first outdoor competition, the Vikings got to work on Whiting Field. Track team members shoveled off 200 meters worth of three lanes and the high jump area on Monday and planned to clear the other 200 meters on Wednesday.

“The biggest thing was preparing for the outdoor season and keeping everyone on task. Whether we have a bunch of snow or not, the outdoor season is going to happen so we need to be ready,” Fast said.

“Seeing that devotion (shoveling the track) from the team shows we are ready to go outdoors and excited to get competing.”

The softball team has seen one doubleheader pushed back and will attempt to play at Marian University on Thursday. Lawrence is headed south to Beloit College, where there is virtually no snow, to play on Saturday. The Vikings are scheduled to play their home opener on April 6 against St. Norbert College.

The baseball team also used shovels to clear off as much of the Whiting Field infield as possible.

“The biggest issue we have on our field is the wind is crazy so we have a lot of drifting,” said Anderson, noting that there are drifts several feet high near the backstop. “That’s too much for us to move and it takes a lot longer to melt.”

Anderson’s goal is to play his first home game on April 10 when the Vikings open conference play with Beloit.

“The goal is to be able to play our conference home opener next weekend,” Anderson said. “If we get in four games this weekend of the five we have scheduled, I’ll be happy.”

Perfect start

Senior center fielder Robert Rashid picked up right where he left off last season. Rashid, one of the nation’s leaders in stolen bases in 2010, was 7-for-7 on steals in Lawrence’s first eight games. Rashid, who led the team with a .393 batting average during the spring break trip, stole a school season record 32 bases last season.

Editor’s Note: Inside LU Athletics is a weekly notes package written by Lawrence University Sports Information Director Joe Vanden Acker. It will feature teams and individual players, recap weekly awards or highlights and take a look at what’s ahead for the Vikings.