Head coach Terry Weir kicked off the indoor track season last month ready for a “team breakthrough” on the women’s side.

With three meets under the team’s belt and two left before the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships, Weir said the Colonials are “on track” for a strong showing in the back half of the season.

After a monthlong break following the first indoor track meet of the season in December, the Colonials had solid showings at the Keydet Invitational Jan. 19 – the team’s first meet of the new year – and the Patriot Games Jan. 26. Between the two meets, the Colonials improved nine personal records but Weir said the team has yet to have its strongest meet.

“Everyone looks really on track and is doing really well,” Weir said. “I still think we’re going to have those breakthrough meets and season for them.”

[gwh_image id=”1078834″ credit=”File Photo by Dean Whitelaw | Photographer” align=”right” size=”embedded-img”]Junior Suzanne Dannheim runs around a track in Georgetown during track and field practice in January. [/gwh_image]

Weir said going forward he wants to get his runners into faster heats in their events and will be looking to see which events give the Colonials the biggest shot at success at the championship meet on Feb. 23.

“Time-wise, to get into those faster heats, that’s what we’re looking at now,” Weir said. “That’s how we line up certain girls in there to make sure we get those times so we can be in those fast heats so we have an opportunity or position to score by the time A-10s come.”

At the team’s most recent meet on Jan. 26, six Colonials set personal records in their respective events and GW had four runners in the top-six finishers in the mile race. The runners were competing in “off races” at the Patriot Games. Runners like senior Madison Yerke and junior Suzanne Dannheim, who will most likely be running the 3,000-meter race at the championship meet, Weir said, were instead competing in the mile at George Mason.

“Our second meet at Mason, I thought we had a very good meet getting back in the swing of things,” he said.

Across the team, the Colonials have set 12 personal records through three meets this season, picking up half of them at the Patriot Games.

“This past meet at George Mason, we’re finally seeing what we want to see coming together,” senior long-distance runner Kelli Stetson said. “We’re not there yet and I think we can definitely do better but I think we’re on the right trajectory and I know we’re all really excited about that.”

Stetson has competed in the mile, the 3,000-meter race and the 5,000-meter race this season, and earned a new personal record at the Keydet Invitational Jan. 19 with her 5:29.32 mark in the mile. She added to the team’s personal record count at the Patriot Games finishing the 5,000-meter race with a split of 17:56.58, 24 seconds faster than her previous mark.

“With the two meets we have left, it’s enough time to get everything down and ready to go for A-10s,” Stetson said.

Weir said runners like sophomore Brittany Wilkinson and Margaret Coogan – who both set personal records twice in three meets – are on pace to get into faster heats at the A-10 Championship. Sophomore Katherine Nohilly was also in the mix for a strong indoor track season, but has been out of commission for the team due to a health issue, Weir said.

Seniors Yerke and Halley Brown, along with Dannheim, have all finished first in their respective events once this season in the team’s three meets so far. Yerke and Dannheim most recently took first and second, respectively, in the mile at the Patriot Games despite usually running longer distances on the track.

Weir said the early first-place finishes are a confidence booster for the runners looking down the rest of the season.

At the Cappy Anderson Invitational in December and the Patriot Games, the Colonials flooded the top-six finishers in the mile races, with at least four Colonials grabbing a top-six finish in the event.

“We have a really good system in place that allows them to progress through the season,” Stetson said of the mile runners. “Their times will be dropping, at least that’s what I foresee.”

GW will revisit the Virginia Military Institute for the second time this season while some Colonials will travel to Boston for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational this weekend.

The Colonials do not have an indoor track to call their own, but the recurring meets they have at George Mason between the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons has made the away venue feel like the team’s “home track,” Stetson said.

“I definitely think it’s to our advantage to have a meet at Mason and to be able to be back there for the championship because we’re so comfortable in that environment,” she said.

The Colonials return to action Friday at the VMI Winter Relays in Lexington, Va. and the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston.