While campus will look fairly empty until winter break ends, some of Washington University’s athletic teams will be hard at work multiple times between Christmas and the start of the spring semester. Here’s a quick look at Wash. U.’s winter teams and what they’ll be doing over the next few weeks.

Getting an earlier-than-usual start to their winter campaign, the Washington University track and field teams kicked off their 2012 season in 2011 with a good showing at the Illinois Wesleyan First Chance Meet in Bloomington, Ill. While official scoring did not take place at the meet, a number of Bears on both the men’s and women’s teams put up quality performances.

The Washington University men’s and women’s cross country teams’ second and first place finishes at last Saturday’s Early Bird meet marked the beginning of a new season. “It went great,” head coach Jeff Stiles said of the meet. “It may be the best opening meet, if you take into account both sides, that we’ve potentially ever had.”

For the third straight year, the Washington University men’s track and field team will be bringing in the University Athletic Association trophy. The men’s and women’s teams traveled to Atlanta, Ga. on Friday and Saturday for the 2011 UAA Outdoor Championships, and the men’s team came home with its third straight conference title and 14th overall in the program’s history. The women’s team took second, just behind Emory University.

With one week until the University Athletic Association championships, the Washington University track and field teams performed well in their final test before the big meet.

The Washington University track and field teams can’t help but enjoy the warm weather when it brings the performances they saw in Saturday’s Washington University Select Meet. “We wait all early season for a day like this,” junior Dan Davis said.

The Washington University track and field teams continued their streak of solid performances during the second meet of their current three-week homestand to open the spring outdoor season. The men’s team took second and the women placed fourth amongst 24 different competing schools on Friday and Saturday, at the Washington University Invitational meet.

Senior Ben Harmon and juniors Dan Davis and Tyler Jackson each garnered All-America Honors at the 2011 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Indoor Championships, leading the Washington University men’s team to an eighth-place finish, besting a previous top finish of 15 in 2000. Wash. U. picked up 18 points in total at the March 12 meet in Columbus, Ohio, the most in team history.

With its athletes spread across two meets in Illinois, the Washington University track and field team put forth a pair of strong efforts on Friday in the North Central College Classic and the Illinois College Classic.

Junior co-captain Liz Phillips set a provisional qualifying mark in the mile run, to go along with the Washington University track and field team’s five first-place finishes on Saturday at the Monmouth Fighting Scot Invitational.