This year of sports has not been a traditional one at Grambling State University.
The campus’ two main sports, football and men’s basketball, both suffered from horrendous seasons.
But the GSU’s Track and Field program, who has a countless number of overlooked achievements, steadily continues to carry rich history of winning.
“We have a very focused group and coach, so winning is second nature,” said Zoltan Riazzo, runner for the 800M. “We go out here and work everyday and it shows in the performance.”
The G-Men football team was preseason favorites to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference West Division. Unfortunately highly anticipated football season went sour, as they finished 1-10.
The men’s basketball team season was terrible as they laid a big goose egg this season going 0-28.
Meanwhile, the Grambling’s Track and Field teams are quietly and consistently winning.
This season the men’s Track and Field team set the fastest time in the nation in the 4x200m and the sprint medley team set national records. They won the Distant Melody Relay Indoor season. They placed first place in every event except the men’s 4×100 meter relay in the McNeese Relays.
Nothing on this earth is perfect, not even Grambling’s men’s Track and Field team.
Not everything went well for the most winningest sport in Grambling’s history. Earlier this year, they placed second in the Indoor SWAC Championship, an event where they placed first in the previous four years.
Riazzo said that placing second in the indoor championship has fueled the team to give their all in this weekend as they will be traveling to New Orleans to defend their Outdoor Championship.
“A lot of people don’t pay attention to track,” said Riazzo. “Everybody just pay attention to football and basketball. For us as a track team to win all the time is just remarkable. We come out here and we handle our business. We’ve won so much that people almost expect us to win all the time.”
Despite their winning reputation, the GSU men’s track team gets overlooked and are under appreciated. Yet, they remain hungry for more SWAC titles.