Emilie Mertz Interview

I interviewed Emilie Mertz, she runs cross country and indoor and outdoor track at Ithaca College. This year she is the 800-meter champion in Empire 8. She is a sophomore and her team just finished second in the NCAA Division III indoor track and field Championships this past weekend. (this is the highest team place in Ithaca college history) Two of her teammates won individual national championships. She has had a lot of success being a part of her team and she has also achieved a lot of individual success. In my interview with Mertz I focused on group dynamics. I was curious how an individual sport functions as a team. She said that this season had its ups and down like any other but overall it went well for her personally. Her main goal was to just keep getting better despite an injury that she suffered earlier in the year. She achieved her goal by coming in first place in the 800-meter run when last year she came in fifth. The women’s track and field team did amazing overall. For example, they placed second in the country, had two national champions, and four all-Americans this year. Emilie said that even though they had
Members often set goals for not only themselves but as whole. They hold each other accountable for actions and push each other to become better, they depend on one another. Everyone has a role on her team and they work well together. They might face challenges but they know they can work together to overcome them. The Ithaca Women’s indoor track and field team has positive group dynamics. The one area of intervention I would choose be to try and get the team to mix and become more familiar with people of other events. Have outings or different forms of team bonding of the entire team. Maybe even break the team up into groups not based on their event have them complete a task and get to know one