Heading into March 19, the Virginia outdoor track and field teams had a reason to be excited — they would be opening up their season performing in front of their home crowd in the Virginia Cup. Unfortunately, inclement weather forced the event to be cancelled. A few weeks later, the Cavaliers will get their chance to perform in Charlottesville in the U.Va. Quad Friday and the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational Saturday.
“They look forward to being at home,” coach Bryan Fetzer said. “They are excited to compete in front of friends, family and fans.”
Last week, Virginia’s teams started off their seasons strong in the Florida Relays. For the No. 5 Virginia men, junior Henry Wynne won the 1,500 meters by breaking the Virginia record with a time of 3:38.35 — earning him the title of Co-ACC Men’s Track Performer of the Week with Florida State junior Zak Seddon.
For the Virginia women, sophomore Megan Rebholz and freshman Emily Mulhern finished third and fourth in the 5,000 meters with each runner setting personal records. Additionally, the best finish of the meet came from the distance medley relay team of freshman Alexia Roux, graduate student Aisha Naibe-Wey, sophomore Caroline Clark and graduate student Sarah Astin, which took second place with a time of 11:23.70.
Fetzer is happy of how his team performed against tough competition.
“When you step up the level of competition you’re competing against, one of two things happen — you either rise to that level, or you get intimidated by it,” he said. “The second one is not what happened.”
For the Virginia men, a star athlete — junior Filip Mihaljevic — will be making his outdoor season debut.
“I definitely want to open up well,” he said. “The discus competition will be really good.”
The Bosnia and Herzegovina native, who placed third at discus in the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, will be facing the University of Pennsylvania’s Sam Mattis, the champion of the event at last year’s nationals. In addition to Pennsylvania, Virginia will be competing against Columbia and Maryland this weekend. Despite the competition, Mihaljevic is confident in his team.
“I think the energy of the team is really, really high,” he said. “I think we will be ready to compete with the best ACC and NCAA teams.”
In addition to the tough competition, both Virginia teams will also have to deal with potentially inclement weather. With a high of 49 degrees Saturday and a low of 30, as well as a chance of some precipitation, Virginia may have an extra obstacle to get over.
“One of the things that we can never predict is the weather,” Fetzer said. “No matter what time of year or where we’re at, we have no control over it.”
For Mihaljevic, the weather is an opportunity to prepare for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., where the weather can be random at any time during the year.
“We have to get used to get any kind of weather because [the NCAA Championships] will be in Oregon,” he said. “[We need] to warm up well and be ready mentally [for the weather].”
Mihaljevic said his goals this year are to become an NCAA champion as well as to help his team record a top-three finish at the ACC Championships. With only a few meets before these conference championships, Virginia needs to make the most of its opportunities to warm up its teams so that they can make a splash.
For Fetzer, who preaches the motto “Get better every day in every way” to his teams, learning from mistakes is crucial to growth.
“Every time you compete, you want to learn something from it,” he said. “If we make the same mistakes in back-to-back competitions, then we clearly haven’t learned.”
The U.Va. Quad will take place Friday at 6 p.m. and the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational will be on the following day at 2 p.m. Both meets will be held at Lannigan Field.
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