The Virginia track and field team's season gets in full swing with the Penn State National Open meet tomorrow and Saturday. This will be the first meet this season in which the Cavaliers field a full team.
The Cavaliers are already off to an excellent start, however, as some early season warm-up meets gave them many reasons for optimism. In a meet at Virginia Tech earlier this month, for example, 21 Virginia athletes set personal records. The Penn State meet will provide an opportunity for Virginia to see many ACC teams in action for the first time, as well as a chance to see where the team is in its conditioning compared to the rest of the country.
For most of Virginia's distance runners, this meet will represent their first serious competition since the close of the cross country season. As such, coach Randy Bungard will have most of them compete in races such as the 800 or 1600 meters, rather than the 3K or 5K they are used to.
"This serves the purpose of letting me know where they are," Bungard said. "We also don't want to bang them up on an indoor track. Indoor tracks are usually smaller, so running a 5K would be 25 laps with a small turn, which is much tougher physically than an outdoor track."
These meets also help determine where certain athletes can best help the team. Junior Susan Brooks, who typically runs the 800, will run the 1600 at Penn State this weekend.
"Many runners come in and say, 'I run the 800,' or 'I run the 1600,'" Bungard said. "Part of the purpose of these meets is to get rid of that mentality. I try to tell my players that they are track athletes first, and where they can best help the team defines which races they run."
The sprinters and hurdlers will run a fairly standard load. Standouts include senior Reuben Jones, who will run the 60-meter dash and the 200 meters. Freshman hurdler Adams Abdulrazaaq ran one of the top-10 best times in school history in the 60-meter hurdles at the Maryland Invitational last weekend.
Top women's sprinters and hurdlers include senior Janne'a Bridgeford, who will run the open 60 meters and open 200 meters, and sophomore Ayla Smith, who will run the 60-meter hurdles and the open 400 meters. Smith has already had a decorated career, breaking state high school records in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles at John Handley High School in Winchester, Va.
Virginia also boasts a young and talented roster of jumpers. On the men's side, freshman Greg Nelson finished third and sophomore Arthur Gennari finished sixth in the high jump at the Virginia Tech meet. Freshmen Meikle Paschal, Conlon Bonner and Marcus Robinson are also expected to take on a leading role among the jumpers.
On the women's side, senior Kathryn Tershel and freshman Rashawnda James will lead the jumpers, along with what may be the team's most pleasant surprise, freshman Assiata Williams. Williams was born in Sierra Leone and came to Virginia not expecting to star in track. She walked on and is now the top women's high jumper.
"Training is going pretty well," sprinter Reuben Jones said. "Most of us started in August, so we have a lot of people who've been training awhile. This is the biggest meet we've had so far and I'm very excited to see how we do"
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