The No. 15 men’s and No. 20 women’s track and field teams enjoyed what their coach referred to as an “”adequate”” performance this past weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
The meet consisted of many athletes from the high school to the Olympic training level and was spread out across four days, a fact that UA head coach Fred Harvey said hurt his team’s chances a bit.
“”Everyone is so spread out and it’s tough to be excited as a team,”” Harvey said. “”I didn’t even know the results of all my athletes until we met up at the airport.””
The four-day competition consisted of more than 300 separate events with some UA athletes even competing in the Olympic training division.
One such athlete, senior sprinter Bobby McCoy, was the only collegiate athlete competing in the 400-meter dash and he was up against the likes of several potential future Olympians. McCoy took second in the event with a time of 46.47 despite struggling with the wind. Harvey said the mark is well below McCoy’s potential, however, and hopes to see bigger things from him and the rest of the team as the Pacific 10 Conference Championships approach.
“”Nothing, in my opinion, was spectacular about this meet,”” Harvey said. “”But it is one of those things where I want a lot more and I know we’re going to get it.””
One of the other top performances of the day happened Friday in the 100m dash where UA senior sprinter Marcus Tyus won his heat in a time of 10.51 seconds, good enough for only the eighth regional qualification in the West division so far this outdoor season.
On the women’s side, senior distance runner Irine Lagat finished fourth in the 5,000m run in a time of 16:36.87 – about 14 seconds better than the mark needed to earn a regional qualification.
With the biggest of the competitions out of the way until the postseason, Harvey hopes the team will get through the next couple of weeks of more confined meets and get motivated for the Pac-10 Conference Championships and the NCAA West Regional Championships next month.
“”We are definitely motivated now,”” Harvey said. “”It’s just a matter of getting the rest and the training we need in the next couple weeks.””
Much of the team will utilize next weekend as a training session while the throwers and long jumpers travel to UC-San Diego for the Triton Invitational. The whole team will return to action the following weekend for rivalry week as it competes against ASU and NAU in the UA-ASU-NAU meet.
