While the Arizona men’s and women’s track and field teams were originally slated to take this weekend off, head coach Fred Harvey decided he wanted to give some other athletes a chance to compete for the first time. So earlier in the week he entered the team into tomorrow’s NAU Team Competition in Flagstaff.
“”We were allowed to enter a handful of people who needed more competition.”” Harvey said. “”It’s for the athletes who haven’t had a chance to compete to get some experience which will hopefully help us at the conference level.””
UA will be competing against athletes from NAU, UC-Irvine, Southern Utah and Long Beach State.
Because the team just added the meet to their schedule earlier this week, however, they will not compete in the team scoring and will instead focus on individual performances.
“”This is mainly for our sprinters and hurdlers on the male’s side,”” Harvey said, “”So we can get them some experience or get a good idea of where they are competitively.””
NCAA regulations state that only a certain number of athletes are permitted to compete in each event from week to week.
Because of this, several athletes, like some underclassmen or those just recovering from injury, have not been able to get a taste of the competition to date this season.
This weekend’s meet will allow such athletes to gain experience while allowing others a chance to rest after three tough weekends in a row. This group mainly includes athletes who have already earned NCAA provisional or automatic qualifications for March.
“”Most of our key people will be resting this week,”” Harvey said. “”We try to plan in our training program these blocks of training that give athletes a week off to work on other things.””
For some athletes, the bye weekend provides an opportunity to fully recover from minor injuries sustained in the last couple weeks. This includes key athletes such as sprinter Bobby McCoy, who is recovering from minor back injuries sustained at last weekend’s Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.
The whole team will be back in action at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. next weekend.
