The Arizona men’s and women’s track and field teams will be split this weekend, returning to Seattle and Albuquerque, N.M, for the second time in the past two weeks.
The distance runners will compete in the Husky Classic in Seattle and the rest of the squad will compete in the Albuquerque Invitational.
“”We are really expecting quite a lot out of the athletes as we get closer to the conference championships,”” said UA head coach Fred Harvey, who added that several athletes will need to improve their times to have a better chance at competing in the NCAA Indoor Championships March 9-10.
Ten athletes have already provisionally qualified for the Indoor Championships. Senior heptathlete Jake Arnold, ranked No. 5 nationally, is the only one on the team who automatically qualified for the championships.
Arnold, the reigning NCAA outdoor champion in the decathlon, will compete in the 60-meter hurdles, 60m and 400m dashes, pole vault, shot put and long jump.
“”This is more of a training weekend for me,”” he said Arnold will not compete again until the Mountain Pacific Championships Feb. 23-24.
Junior Nick Mossberg has tied the provisional qualifying mark with a 5.20m jump in the pole vault the past two weeks.
“”I really need to jump 5.35 meters to secure myself a spot in NCAAs,”” Mossberg said.
Senior Adam Kuehl will compete in the shot put for the second time this season and look to improve his provisional qualifying throw of 18.02m.
“”I’m just getting back into competition rhythm and starting to have some fun,”” said Kuehl, who did not compete in the shot put in the 2006 outdoor season due to a wrist injury.
The distance team will compete in Seattle because running at sea level is much more conducive to achieving qualifying times than the 5,000-foot elevation of Albuquerque.
Although the latest Trackwire 25 poll released Feb. 6 did not feature either Arizona team, Harvey was not upset.
“”I never get concerned about rankings,”” he said.