Track and field’s freshmen have emerged as key contributors to the team as it heads into its next meet.

Track and field will compete in Madison, Wis., for the Wisconsin Elite Invitational. The meet, hosted by Wisconsin, will mark the second non-scoring meet of the year for the Huskies. NIU will compete against a field of five teams.

Last weekend, the Huskies placed third out of 10 in the Illini Classic. They had solid showings all weekend in multiple events, including a 200-meter event championship for freshman sprinter A’Iesha Irvin-Muhammad.

Irvin-Muhammad will not travel with the team this week as she has been held out by Connie Teaberry, director of track and field. She will resume competing at the end of the month in the Indiana Relays.

“Our staff is looking for our young ladies to continue their confidence on the track,” Teaberry said. “That confidence sometimes comes from success, so … the success the ladies had last week at Illinois should spill over to Wisconsin.

“Each weekend if they continue to have confidence in their abilities, their workouts, their teammates, and what they are trying to do, each week we should see better and better performances depending on what the accomplishes are from the week before.”

Junior multi-event athlete Michaela Dwyer, who has competed in three events this season, liked the showing her teammates had in practice this week.

“Our team has been looking really good in practice,” Dwyer said. “We just had a really hard workout [Wednesday]. And I feel as the meets come and as practice goes, I think we are going to be really good this year.

“We have a lot of really good freshmen, and also the upperclassmen have been looking very good. All around we have been looking great as a team.”

Teaberry said the sprinters are not the only athletes who have been doing well on the track this year, as the distance runners are showing signs of what could be a good season.

“The distance group is showing a lot of focus this year,” Teaberry said. “They have really rallied around coach [Greg] Hipp and are buying into what his vision is for the distance program. I think with that happening we are seeing better performances on the track.

“All of those ladies are working hard athletically in practice, and you are starting to see the dividends show on the track.”

Teaberry said junior thrower Sidra Sherrill continues to show leadership qualities and stands out from the other student-athletes when it comes to throwing.

“Sidra right now is leading our field event group as far as the throws,” Teaberry said. “She has become very dynamic and quick in the throwing ring. She is also getting stronger in the weight room. She continues to show improvement, and I think this past weekend was her second-best career shot put throw ever, so coming off break that is a great showing.”