Spring has just about sprung as the Virginia men's and women's track and field teams lace up their running shoes and prepare to enter a promising outdoor season. This weekend, the Cavaliers will officially kick off the outdoor season with the 49'ers Invitational Competition in Charlotte, N.C., where they will face ACC rivals N.C. State, the University of North Carolina and Wake Forest, as well as non-conference contenders Appalachian State, Davidson, East Tennessee State, Farleigh Dickinson, Georgia State, Gardner Webb, High Point and Maryland Eastern Shore.
"The goal of this meet is just to see where you are, fitness-wise, and for the field event kids to see where they are technically," said Virginia coach Randy Bungard, who is in his 10th season at Virginia. "We are looking to see where people are and what weaknesses might be so we can work on those in the next few weeks."
The Cavaliers roll into the outdoor season on a high note with the recent honoring of five Cavaliers as All-Americans: distance runners junior Jordan Orr, senior Alex Tatu, senior Kevin McHale, freshman Brian Lee and senior jumper Tomika Ferguson.
"We took five people and we came back with five All-Americans, so we are pretty happy about that," Bungard said. "Tomika was an All-American indoor last year. She came back again and was All-American this year, and we shifted her training so that she is going to be a better jumper outdoor than indoor. My expectation is for her to be an All-American outdoors."
Virginia will be taking only 18 women and 15 men -- none of whom are the All-Americans -- to this weekend's invitation.
"These early season meets are ones where we run people in off-events, and not their normal events, because it is so early in the season," Bungard said. "For sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers, we aren't taking anybody. We are training through this meet."
Sophomore Amy Bilmanis, a shot and discus thrower, is one of the 18 women who will be attending. Bilmanis is elated about the opportunity to defend her title as last year's discus champ at this event.
"We're all pretty excited that this is our first opportunity to compete outdoors, as the weather is getting great," Bilmanis said. "I think we will take this challenge as strongly as we would take, say, our home meet the week before ACCs, and even the ACC competition."
Bilmanis has high personal goals for this season.
"I made it to regionals in discus [last year], so I hope to make it again in discus," Bilmanis said. "I also throw the hammer and another goal is to get to regionals in that."
For the 2006 outdoor season, she qualified for the NCAA East Regional Championships at the Lou Onesty Invitational with a discus throw of 164' 0.5."
Junior decathlete David Lewis will also be joining Bilmanis at the invitational, where he will participate in pole vault, javelin, and hurdles. Last year Lewis placed seventh at the ACC Championships in the decathlon with a score of 6400, despite the fact that it was his first time participating in a full decathlon.
"It is by far the hardest thing I've competed in," Lewis said. "Coming in this year, I have more confidence, and I am hoping to put up big points early," he said, adding that he is "pretty optimistic" about the spring season.
"We have a lot of young guys that are going to start to get their feet wet, and they're going to be good," he said.
According to Bungard, Virginia will use this early competition as practice to iron out any technical problems.
"You've got to use these meets to watch people and see what you need to work on, because outdoor ACC comes up pretty quick," Bungard said. "We have this meet and then we have four more meets and then we are at conference."
ACC Outdoor Championships will begin April 19.
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