USU track team to compete in Boise State-hosted meet
Expecting great competition, the Utah State University indoor track and field teams travel to Boise, Idaho to compete in the Boise State United Heritage Invitational, Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Aggies will be competing against Stanford, UCLA, Washington State, Idaho, Arizona State, Sacramento State and Boise State.
“It could potentially be a really good meet. It just depends on what those teams bring with them,” said Head Coach Gregg Gensel. “Whatever happens, we’re going up there with the idea that we’ve got to perform well.”
USU is coming off their only indoor home meet last week, the Wilson Motor Invitational, where it was able to claim 12 titles. The men won 10 events and had 19 top-three finishers. The women had two first-place finishes and 12 top-three finishers.
Gensel said he his excited about where his team is at this point in the season, and feels like it learned a lot last week.
“Saturday after the meet, I told them now I think you understand and are figuring it out what it takes to be a Division I track athlete, and some of you are making that extra effort,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t realize that until now.”
One of the groups that has had a difficult time understanding this is the younger athletes, he said.
“I think they just thought they were still in high school,” Gensel said. “They were just thinking they were talented and can just do practice a little bit and then go to meets and have fun. At this level you can’t do that.
“Now they are stepping up, and that’s what I want to see,” he said.
The invitational will be held in a state-of-the-art facility, recently purchased by Boise State, unlike the Aggies’ own indoor facility they ran in last week. The arena is complete with banked tracks, and can hold up to 4,000 fans.
For the sprinters, this will be one of the fastest indoor tracks they run on, Gensel said, and even the throwing and jumping areas are state-of-the-art.
“We’ve got some strong competition this week, and it’s a very, very fast track,” said sprinter Justin Wickard. “So, I’m excited to see what happens.”
Wickard is confident the Aggies will have a good showing in Boise, especially with the attitude the athletes have, he said.
Recently, USU has been exhibiting a great deal of team support, he said. He said this includes helping each other out with positive reinforcement, staying focused and pushing each other through meets and workouts.
“The team’s improving a great deal,” he said. “We’re definitely moving in the right direction now.”
Wickard will have the opportunity to earn his third title of the year come Saturday. To date, he has two titles, including one from last week’s home meet, and a second-place finish at the Air Force Invitational.
Others who have received recent recognition are five athletes on the USU women’s pole-vaulting team. Debra Barker, Kaylene Gastaldi, Alana Geisler, Tricia Jacobson and Amy Davis have all reached the Utah State indoor all-time top-10 list.
But for Barker, reaching that achievement helps the team more than simply giving them bragging rights, she said.
“It definitely makes us competitive against each other, in a good spirit,” she said. “It gets us ready to vault each week.”
–csmo@cc.usu.edu