Women's Indoor Track Season Preview

The Brescia women's indoor track and field team begins its season today, January 18, at the EIU John Craft Invitational hosted by Eastern Illinois University.

The Bearcats are coming off of a fourth place performance at last years River States Conference Championships and Head Coach Luke Stoffel believes that the team can accomplish more this season.

"As we have continued to grow the program, we have continued to have more success. We have a very talented and hard-working group of athletes this season and I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish," said Stoffel.

The Bearcats return two athletes who earned All-Conference honors last season, Rachel Frey (SO, Vincennes, Ind.) -- who won pole vault -- and Madison Hopkins (SO, Sardina, Ohio), who got second place in high jump and third place in long jump. The team also returns all four members of each relay team.

Madeline Jones (JR, Mt. Carmel, Ill.) is also returning, coming off of a career best performance in cross country season and earning Second Team All-Conference at the River States Conference Cross Country Championships.

"We have some quality athletes returning to compete in another season with us and we have several new athletes who can make an impact for us as well," said Stoffel.

Important dates to know:

• January 18 is the Bearcats' first indoor meet of the season.

• The River States Conference Indoor Championship is on February 7 at Tiffin University.

• The NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships are on March 7-9 in Brookings, South Dakota.

To see the team's full schedule, click here.

To learn more about Brescia's track & field programs, follow them on Twitter (@BUxc_track) and Instagram (brescia_xc_and_tf).

The starter's pistal goes off to begin the Bearcats' season on January 18 at Eastern Illinois University.