Harrogate, TN - A season of preparation, dedication, and sacrifice has led to this weekend. After much anticipation, the Lincoln Memorial track and field teams will be in action in the South Atlantic Conference championships in Winston-Salem, NC Saturday and Sunday. The Railsplitters have accrued many personal and team accolades this season. Whether it was a new personal best, new program record, or a Conference Player of the Week award, Lincoln Memorial has been priming itself all season for this weekend's conference championships.

Assistant throws coach Hannah Redlin praised the team for its ability to adapt on-the-fly and overcome things that may cause issues in competition. "I think this team's ability to fix small things without having to "reinvent the wheel" is one of its strengths," she said. "We've been working on fixing smaller things so that we're not re-working the entire throw and disrupting what we had prior. They usually handle that pretty well both in practice and in competition. I feel like our consistency from the season will carry over well to the conference championships," she added. "The group has been really level-headed all week and locked-in."

Coach Jeff Kavalunas highlighted the team's experience and how his team is maintaining its mentality as well heading into the postseason. "My group is a pretty experienced group now," said coach Jeff Kavalunas. "Many of the girls have been through conference championships, prelim finals, and so on. It's the same way for the guys. We've got some experience that has been here before and we're all excited. Our mentality is just to do what we did to get there. We're always trying to have business-as-usual approach to things, and that has allowed us to remain relaxed, but excited, for the conference championships. We've got some awesome heats.

Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Rochelle Black drew attention to both the experience and youth of his team, spotlighting their performances throughout the season while expounding on the opportunity to compete in the conference championships. "Experience is extremely important heading into the postseason, and we have that, but we also have some people that haven't been at this level. There will be some nerves from both the newcomers and those with experience, but I'll say that while some may not be experienced in this particular type of event, they're extremely familiar with what they're doing. We just try to take everything in stride and try to keep from reinventing ourselves at this portion of the season. Everything leading up to  this was a dress rehearsal. Everyone had to earn their way in, so already that means that they're in the top 32 in the conference, which is a good accomplishment. Competing against schools like Wingate, who is stacked across the board, is an awesome opportunity. We moved our athletes around and had them in a bunch of different events this season so that we could establish where we could 'do the most damage' with who. We're excited for the opportunity to compete."