After completing a quick tune up last Saturday at the Virginia Cup, the Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams will host seven schools for the Virginia Invitational this Saturday at Lannigan Field. The Cavaliers will be facing some elite competition in Charlotte, Georgetown, Loyola, Maryland Eastern Shore, Norfolk State, Kent State and Robert Morris.
Many of the teams competing Saturday hail from small, relatively unknown conferences. In nearly every other collegiate sport, competing against a “mid-major” school would give ACC power Virginia a decided advantage. But in outdoor track and field, even obscure schools can produce champions.
“In track and field, you are going against the clock or going against a measuring tape,” coach Bryan Fetzer said. “You are going to have great athletes on [smaller] teams.”
The Virginia coaching staff set up the Virginia Invitational to include many conference champions in indoor track and field — the Norfolk State men’s team won the MEAC, Charlotte captured both the men’s and women’s A-10 titles and the Kent State women claimed the MAC crown.
Other programs, such as the Maryland Eastern Shore, did not win a conference title, but have earned national attention because of their recent success.
“It is truly a meet of champions,” Fetzer said. “Getting some competition is the next step up for us.”
The Cavaliers will look to respond to the increased competition after a less intense atmosphere last weekend at the Virginia Cup. That meet was seen as another training exercise, and many athletes competed in their non-traditional events to improve various aspects of their form or technique. This weekend will be a chance for the athletes to apply what they learned in last weekend’s tournament.
“Last week, I did a shorter approach trying to get into a rhythm,” senior high jumper Pearl Bickersteth said. “Now I’m going to go back to my full approach and apply those things from my shorter approach.”
Given the team’s lack of depth, the Cavaliers will need to implement all they learned last week and deliver strong performances to succeed in the tournament. The women’s team currently has only three sprinters, and the men’s team is capable of fielding just one javelin thrower. Unfortunately, that problem is manifested in many different events, and cannot be addressed until a wave of recruits provides reinforcements.
Lacking the numbers of an elite track program, Virginia’s top athletes must consistently perform at a high level. The Cavaliers have learned to do just that, notching 10 combined victories from the men’s and women’s teams at the Virginia Cup.
The Virginia Invitational represents the second of four scheduled meets prior to the ACC Championships. ACCs are occurring earlier than usual this season, so the team has less time to prepare than in a normal year.
“Having ACC’s this early can get into people’s heads,” Bickersteth said. “It is about taking it one meet at a time and working on those little things where you are weak and preparing yourself to compete at that high level.”
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