USU track to compete in first outdoor meet
In the first outdoor meet of the season, the Utah State track and field team is splitting up to compete at Sacramento State University and Texas A&M University, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Because the USU athletes in the heptathlon and decathlon do not have the ease of competing in events as often as the rest of the team, they have taken the opportunity to travel to Texas A&M, Thursday and Friday.
USU athletes in other events will be competing at Sacramento State on Saturday afternoon.
In California, the Aggies will be facing Sacramento State, the University of Southern California, the University of Nevada-Reno, Cal State Fullerton and Portland State University, which has an excellent distance team, Head Coach Gregg Gensel said.
With the competition they are facing, the Aggies are hoping to hold their own, he said.
“I’m not expecting us to show up the world down there, but I’m not expecting us to fold either,” Gensel said.
With the athletes the Aggies have, Gensel said they feel being outdoors gives them a bit of an edge. Competing outdoors allows USU to enter a number of events it did not have the opportunity to compete in during the indoor season.
Being outdoors will allow athletes in events such as the javelin, the hammer, the discus, the long hurdles and the 5,000-meter run to compete. Not only will the Aggies be represented in the events, but they will also be represented by some of their best athletes.
“Our team as a whole is better outdoors because we’ve got a few really good athletes, but they do multiple events,” Gensel said. “So the more events they can do outdoors, the better our team will be.”
In addition, the Aggies simply enjoy being outside in the sunlight, he said.
For some time, USU has been focusing on outdoors, even during the indoor season, Gensel said.
Now that the outdoor season is here, the Aggies are not going to hold anything back, said distance runner Mitch Zundel.
Although this is the first outdoor meet, Zundel said the Aggies are not simply competing for the experience. Zundel said he and the other distance runners are looking to qualify for the Big West Conference Championship Meet, and they have a good chance of doing just that on Saturday.
“If everyone’s focusing and the goals are there, it’s just going to happen,” he said. “Our outdoor season will just flow.”
–csmo@cc.usu.edu