One weekend removed from a quality showing at the New Mexico Cherry and Silver Invite, the Arizona men’s and women’s track teams head back to the Land of Enchantment for the New Mexico Invitational on Saturday.
Last week, the meets consisted of shorter running events and some field events, but this weekend’s meet will feature more distance events in addition to new field events. With a slight change in the events that will take place, there isn’t any change in the team’s goals.
“”(I’m looking for) definitely more qualification times out of our folks who we’re trying to get to the national championships,”” said UA head coach Fred Harvey. “”It’s the same goal for our younger people in the distances. We need to see them get out there and be highly competitive. … The performances are going to come in time but the competitiveness is the biggest thing.””
One athlete Harvey will certainly have his eye on is Shevell Quinley. The senior will see her first action of the season when she hits the track in Albuquerque and Harvey’s expecting more big things from the Tracey, Calif., native.
“”We’re looking for her to get a national qualifying performance out of her,”” the head coach said. “”We fully expect her to do very, very well. She’s been training exceptionally well, her head’s in the right spot right now, so she’s just got to go out there and put together a performance.””
While it will be Quinley’s first meet this season, other Wildcats will have more of an advantage: they’ve seen exactly where they’ll be competing and will have that familiarity factor working in their favor.
“”That’s going to be a big help actually because the ring was difficult to get adjusted to,”” said thrower Zack Lloyd. “”(Last week) I had everybody telling me, ‘It’s a slick ring, it’s really bad.’
“”You get in there thinking that it’s really bad and it’s not as bad once I got in there,”” he added. “”Now I know from personal experience that it’ll be better.””
One Wildcat, however, won’t have that luxury even though she competed last weekend. Junior Liz Patterson went out of her comfort zone last week when she ran the 60-yard dash and returns this weekend to compete in what she prefers – jumping.
Patterson earned a NCAA qualification time in the 60y dash last weekend and also posted the Wildcats’ top time in the event. She said she just hopes to get another qualifying mark and help her team.
Lloyd has his sights set a little higher, seeing as how he already owns the nation’s top mark in the shot put at 64 feet, 8 inches. He said he hopes to set a new school record, a distance he’s just 3.5 inches away from.
But how do you do better than the best in the country?
“”Just throw. … It does sound easy but that’s what it’s got to be,”” Lloyd said. “”When you go and try and do something and you think about it, it gets harder so you’ve just got to go out there and do it.””
No matter the goals of each individual athlete, Harvey is looking for one thing in particular out of each member on the team.
“”I want to see people compete as if it’s their last competition,”” he said. “”… Every time you step on the track here it’s about qualifying and about beating the people that you’re competing against and I want to see that type of attitude develop immediately.””
