Captains:
Abigail Mosca ’14
Major: Math; House: Washburn
Becca Gordon ’13
Major: Sociology; House: Lamont
Kirsten Silfvenius ’13
Majors: Anthropology, Study of Women and Gender; House: Lawrence
What is your favorite event of the season?
My favorite event is the 10k. -AM
Of my events, my favorite is javelin, but I love to watch my teammates compete in the 4×400 relay. It’s always the last event of the meet and the energy is super high and exciting. My teammates are incredible athletes and they give all that they have for one another. It is a beautiful thing to watch. -BG
How did you get into track and field?
My family is pretty involved with track, so I tried it out in middle school and really enjoyed it. I’ve been doing it ever since. -AM
I started running when I was 12 because I did a “Girls on the Run” program at my elementary school that trained girls to run a 5k race. One day, they brought gummy bears you could earn after running a lap around the track; that was when I ran my first mile. The biggest lesson might be that food can be a really effective motivator for me. -KS
How do you prepare for each competition?
Personally, preparing for performance means listening to MIA’s “Bad Girls” and shaving. After reading last week’s column, members of the team briefly considered ripping up pieces of the track to bring with us: but we only had to imagine our coach, Carla Coffey’s, reaction when people drop Skittles on the indoor track during high school track meets when we work the concession booth. The track is sacred: you may have noticed that the indoor track was just resurfaced last year. But we do eat Oreos during the coach’s debriefing after every meet. -KS
Lately I’ve been trying to have some fun on pre-meet days, hang out with my teammates and friends the night before, and go to bed at a reasonable hour. I find that I am physically and mentally more relaxed the next day and ready to compete. -BG
What is it like working with two other captains?
It has been really great to work with Abby and Kirsten. The three of us cover almost all of the event areas, which is good because it’s important that all event areas come together often to create a fun team atmosphere, otherwise the track and field experience would be completely different. -BG
Working with the other captains has been good. We all have strengths to bring, and I depend on them to collaborate for team bonding activities and to make sure all the responsibilities are met. Plus, having a different captain from the throwers, the distance runners and the sprinters ensures that everyone’s interests are represented, which can be hard since we train at different times. -KS
How do you encourage your team?
I encourage my team by cheering them on at practices and during meets. I also try to make sure everyone knows that they’re an important and contributing member of the team. -AM
We encourage our team by holding team meetings and pushing each other during practices. At our most recent team meeting, we discussed our goals for NEWMACs this year and talked about how we were going to achieve those goals by pushing ourselves to train and perform the best that we can. We also communicate a lot about the ways in which each person prefers to be motivated by their teammates during both practice and competition. In this way, we all know how to effectively support one another. -BG
Do you have any pre-competition rituals?
We usually run a team lap before the meet begins. Then we stand in a circle and share what events we are competing in and one word that we want to commit to during that day. We also have a long-standing tradition of eating Oreos during our team talk after the meet ends, when the coaches review all of positive results from that day. -BG
