Westfield State junior sprinter and hurdler Lexi Popp has great expectations for the spring outdoor track season, after a winter in which she just missed qualifying for the NCAA championships in the 400 meters by a mere 8/100ths of a second.

Popp ran a school-record time in the 400 m of 56.97 seconds during the indoor track season.

"I'm not afraid to say that I expect big things from this spring season," said Popp. "I expect to drop my time in the hurdles and qualify for nationals. I am hungry to get there this season because my last two seasons I was SO CLOSE to qualifying," said Popp.

A native of Westford, Mass., who attended Westford Academy, Popp finished 27^th on the NCAA Division III qualifying list in the 400 hurdles in the spring of 2017 as a sophomore. The top 22 athletes on the Division III performance list qualify for the outdoor National Championship meet.

Westfield State head coach Sean O'Brien said that Popp had high expectations even as a freshman.

"Every freshman has big expectations. She's dropped her indoor time by three seconds. Wanting to be the best in New England is a high expectation and freshman haven't really grasped the fact that they are competing against the entire country, and they don't understand how different it is from high school, competing week in and week out," said O'Brien.

After suffering a stress fracture in her right shin during her freshman season, Popp was in a boot for nine weeks and wasn't able to fully compete again for almost a year. Which left her debating if track was still really for her.

"My sophomore year of spring is when I was finally able to believe that what I was doing was making me better as an athlete and as a person," said Popp. "I think the biggest difference for me this year was believing in myself and also trusting my training."

"We take her leg problems into account for training," said O'Brien. "Once a week, she'll have a swim session and or a session on the aqua treadmill. We try to keep her legs from getting beat up. It seems to be working."

Coach O'Brien knows that Popp has a legitimate chance to qualify for nationals and he said she needs to do what most athletes need to do, "improve on the little things, not just times. Whether it is the start or the hurdle form, you are not going to get better unless you focus on the little things. You put the little things together for championships. She's worked hard, listened, and trusted the process. She's done well and the next step is nationals and she's knocking on the door."

"I have done lots of things to improve," said Popp. "I have gained a lot of trust in my coaches in the past two seasons."

"I go to our athletic training room every day before practice to heat, roll out, and stretch. I listen to my body very closely and if something feels different or off, I go see [Westfield State athletic trainer Cheryl Lee] instead of dragging it out and having it potentially get worse and turning into an injury. I make sure to get to practice at least an hour early to do that … I also have added the hydrotrack to my workouts. This is a treadmill that we have that submerges half your body in water and it helps to get in cardio but I don't feel any pain in my shins, which is very nice."

Coach O'Brien went on to say that "indoor will help her outdoor" and that she "was disappointed being so close to nationals with such high expectations. She wants to be one of the best in the country, and she is."

Popp couldn't be happier with her experience at Westfield State University. She knew it was the right place for her to be.

"When I was applying to colleges I was debating between Westfield and another school I just knew that this was the right fit for me. If I could do the process all over again, I would still choose Westfield," said Popp.

As Popp has been a standout in her last couple seasons, she also knows that although track is an individual sport, it is a team sport as well.

"I expect the ladies and I to have the same success in outdoor that we had in indoor. We have so much talent on this team that I know we can achieve great things. There are no other ladies that I would want to be a part of a team with," said Popp.

-- Westfield State will open its spring 2018 outdoor track and field season at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. on Saturday, March 31

Feature Written By Michael Witts, sports information intern