The luck of the Irish was not on the side of the Loyola track team last weekend as it participated in its first meet of the spring. The team started its outdoor season on March 15 and 16 at Tad Gormley Stadium, running in a meet hosted by the University of New Orleans.The team is getting a late start on the season after having its first race cancelled and choosing not to run in a race at the University of Southern Mississippi because of administrative errors by the host school.This delay in starting the season has been rough on the runners.Anand Viswanathan, chemistry senior, ran up to 80 miles a week during the off season between cross country and track. The delay in starting the season has left him eager to compete. “I’ve been training so long, and the training has been good. Even though the training is good, you still need to race more,” Viswanathan said. “We haven’t run races in a while; you forget how to race.”While the runners did not show their highest times, they said they feel that it was a good way to start the season.”It (the race) gave me a lot of confidence,” Viswanathan said. “I feel from this race that I can get better times as the season progresses.”Tad Gormley double booked itself for the weekend, and due to the error, the race ran late into the night on Saturday.Viswanathan, who was scheduled to run at 8:15 p.m., actually ran his race sometime after 10 p.m.Natalie Sargent, general studies freshman, competed in her first collegiate race and placed fourth in the women’s 5,000-meter race with a time of 21 minutes, 37 seconds.Mike Gulotta, history sophomore, and Joe Kutner, music and computer information systems junior, are current school record holders in the 5,000 meters and 800 meters, respectively. Kutner ran the 1,500-meter race in 4:22 on Saturday, a pace that is 10 seconds off of the school record.”Last season was fast for everyone, but having learned from that, I hope to improve both records (the 800 meter and 1,500 meter),” Kutner said.Gulotta came in fifth in the 5,000-meter race.The team will take a break until after Easter. It is scheduled to run next at Tad Gormley on April 6 in the Tulane Invitational.