This week I had the opportunity to sit down with freshman Caleb Cablish from the track and field team. We started things off by discussing the season very broadly. “I would say it started pretty slow, but it’s picked up pretty well,” said Cablish. “I enjoy it. It’s my first time doing indoor. Obviously, I’ve been doing outdoor for five-plus years. It’s going pretty well. Practice is good. I’m getting to know my teammates pretty well; that’s a good part.”
Next, I asked about the state of the team and who the standouts are, to which Cablish responded, “I heard last year it was kind of patchy, but right now we have people that are pretty good at everything, every event. For good sprinters, we’ve got Caleb Payne, we’ve got Emmanuel Dut running the 400. We’ve got some good girls, we’ve got Kallee [Cooper]. She’s running a good 400… We’ve got some really good long-distance runners… Specifically, Bailey [Gassmann] has been doing good. She won indoor nationals, 1,500 I’m pretty sure, so I was really happy about that.”
“Honestly, I just threw it far,” said Cablish when asked what he thought earned him the title of athlete of the week and what that means to him. “I just got a good throw. It just means this is the beginning of the season for outdoor. We can only go further. I feel like it can only go up from now.”
When I asked about personal or team goals for the season, Cablish answered, “For myself specifically, understanding where everyone else was at in our conference last year, I think a high-placing is probably one of my goals for javelin. Discus is probably the place, or somewhere up there. Team goals, we got really close over the spring break trip we just had. I feel like we can grow closer as a team and more in encouraging each other. We have a good dynamic, playing and worshipping together. We have team devotions, and I feel like that’s just a good time to grow together. So just growing closer together is another team goal I’d have personally.”
Finally, I asked if he had anything he’d want to say to the rest of the student body, to which he said, “Really come to show out. It’s an individual sport, but it’s also a team sport, and people need encouragement, and when the student body can come and encourage us it’s always helpful for us. If you have friends that are athletes, make sure they’re getting enough rest, ‘cause we don’t rest, we push ourselves too hard. I feel like we need encouragement to go relax.”
Photo courtesy of AU Athletics.
