Track hosting only outdoor home meet
Expecting to take advantage of the only home outdoor meet of the season, the Utah State track and field team will compete against four other schools in the Mark Faldmo Invitational.
Held at Ralph Maughan Track Stadium, the competition begins Saturday at 10 a.m. with the hammer and javelin and will end around 5 p.m. with the distance events.
Competing against the Aggies will be the University of Utah, BYU, Weber State and Montana State, one of the only meets of the season where the four big schools from Utah have the chance to compete so closely, Head Coach Gregg Gensel said.
Although it is always fun to compete against the top schools from Utah, he said, the rivalry is not as intense as the rivalry in other sports. The thing that will make this weekend so intense is that the Aggies are at home, Gensel said.
“Coming home, there are less things to think about and I’ve noticed that athletes perform a lot better when they’re not thinking about a lot of things,” he said. “People always perform a little better when they’re in front of their friends and family.”
Because they are performing in front of a home crowd, Gensel said, he is expecting to see a few more athletes qualify for conference, especially in the distance events, but seeing athletes qualify will only be half of the excitement.
“Being a home meet, you should see those who have already qualified get even better,” Gensel said.
Right now, the Aggies have 11 athletes qualified for regionals that are also ranked in nationals. Among those athletes, eight are ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA. Of the athletes ranked in the top 20, three, Neil Warr, Ryan Bruhn and Josh Sides, are on the throwing team.
So far this season, the throwing team has led the Aggies in most of the meets they have attended and they are planning on doing the same Saturday simply because of the competition, Sides said.
“We should do pretty well because there’s not a whole lot of schools in Utah that are strong in throwing, but there will be some competition because Montana State has a strong team,” he said. “There will still be some good competition, but it won’t be as good as some of the other meets we’ve been to.”
One issue that does worry Sides is the weather. Last year, the Mark Faldmo Invitational was held despite an inch of snow on the ground, which affected the athletes a great deal and Sides said he remembers weather being an issue since he has been competing for USU.
But despite the weather, the Aggies know they will have the advantage during Saturday’s meet, he said.
“We have the advantage because we practice here, we know how everything feels,” Sides said. “So, I’m sure everyone will do really well.”
-csmo@cc.usu.edu