Red Deer’s Jeremiah Lauzon has wrapped up the indoor track season and is preparing for the upcoming outdoor campaign.
The junior track and field athlete at West Texas Tech A&M had a productive season but in the eyes of Lauzon and his coach Ronald Hewer, there was room for improvement.
Most recently, Lauzon competed in the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia where he competed in the men’s 200 metre in both the preliminary and final stages.
In the finals, he finished seventh with a time of 21.68 seconds posting a time just over one second slower than the athlete who finished first.
“He made the finals which is always a goal and he became an all-American again which is his seventh,” Hewer said.
“That’s such an accomplishment and we actually talked about that. He was disappointed in his performance and I said do you know how many guys don’t make the NCAA Championships and don’t make the final?”
Hewer felt Lauzon’s performance in the finals was an underachievement but added that’s the nature of the sport because you can’t be fast all the time. Over the course of the season, Hewer said his times were also too inconsistent to their liking.
Earlier this season in February at the Lone Star Conference Championship he beat his provincial record in the 200m finals with a time of 21.09. This beat his previous record of 21.14 he broke last year that was held for 18 years.
“He’s the current world record holder for the men’s 200m in Alberta and he’s young, he’s only going to keep breaking that thing more and more,” he added. “He’s going to put it to the point where it’s hopefully untouchable for a long time.”
Overall, Hewer liked Lauzon’s progress in his running mechanics and anticipates he’ll only get better in indoor sprinting.
“He struggles with indoor because his frame it’s a 200 metre track, it’s very tight, and as an athlete with his frame he has a hard time getting to top end speed,” he said.
The outdoor season begins in the next three weeks and Lauzon has some goals he hopes to attain such as improving his time to run 20.4 or faster.
“Now that his confidence has grown and now he understands it’s achievable, his goals seem to be faster than mine,” Hewer said.
“If he does that it’s going to put him in great Olympic contention in the next calendar year in the Olympic trials.”