Aggie track competes against in-state rivals in home meet
In the first home meet of the season, the Utah State track and field team will compete against rivals BYU and Weber State University, Friday at the Ralph Maughan Track Stadium.
Field events begin at 1:30 p.m., followed by track events one hour later. The meet may also include some athletes from Utah Valley State College.
Because the Aggies are coming off of two big invitationals, they are treating this meet as training, Head Coach Gregg Gensel said. But despite trying to keep this meet low key, he said they still plan on seeing some great competition.
“I think it’s going to be very head-to-head, good competition,” Gensel said. “I don’t know what the times will be, how far they’re going to throw and how high they’re going to jump, but you’re going to see some good competition just because it’s BYU and Weber.”
One of the purposes of the meet is to help the athletes improve and to hopefully provide a better environment for them to qualify for the NCAA Regional Tournament. Because of the altitude and the comfortable environment, Gensel said, distance runners looking to qualify are going to benefit the most from this meet.
Despite having the advantage of the altitude for the distance runners, the Aggies will most likely be led by their throwing team, especially facing BYU and Weber.
In just about every throwing event, the Aggies’ best competition will be themselves, thrower Kelli Burton said.
With that in consideration, the Aggies’ throwing squad is even more so treating this meet like a practice, but with the opportunity to have more fun.
“I think it will be a lot of fun, because a lot of people will be kind of putting on a show, doing stuff they wouldn’t do at normal meets,” she said. “It will be a lot of fun to watch.”
Having this meet more relaxed than normal will help the Aggies prepare for their next two meets – the Weber State Invitational and their own Mark Faldmo Invitational. By taking this meet easy, Gensel said more importance is placed on the Mark Faldmo Invitational, which is what USU really wants to do well in.
Thus far in their two outdoor season meets, the Aggies have set 19 USU top-10 records and recorded 40 personal bests, and Gensel said he is looking for more at this meet but recognizes what type of meet it is.
“I don’t expect some tremendous performances, but I don’t expect them to fold up and die either,” he said.
-csmo@cc.usu.edu