ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany track & field program embarks on its first big weekend of the outdoor season, spitting up to attend three meets in Florida and California. The bulk of the competitors will visit the Pepsi Florida Relays, while a selection of distance runners will make their season debuts at the Stanford Invitational or the Sacramento State Distance Carnival.
Last weekend, the jumpers, throwers, and short sprinters made their season debuts at the UCF Invitational in Orlando, the first time UAlbany has attended this meet since 2012. The Great Danes came away with a handful of personal-bests, including a freshman record in the women's shot put from Shelby Bigsby.
“I thought last weekend was the perfect meet for the group,” said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Roberto Vives. “It was a smaller meet, so everyone got a chance to do their events and get started, which was the goal of a first meet. We had several really good performances from people like Anika Hibbard, Chidinma Matthew, and Devon Willis, whose marks should already be good enough to qualify for regionals. For Chidinma, that was her first time under 12 seconds in the 100m. And for a lot of our throwers it was their best opener. The long throws are always tough outdoors. You're used to throwing the weight and now it's the hammer or the discus and it takes time to get the timing down for those events.”
Unlike the Shamrock Invitational, which the Great Danes have traditionally attended in the early part of the outdoor season, the UCF Invitational featured only a handful of teams, most of which the Great Danes haven't competed against before in such a small setting.
“It was good to see some different schools that we normally don't see, like Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Bethune-Cookman,” said Vives. “And there were a few world-class people there too. It was a good atmosphere. It wasn't high-powered, like Florida Relays is going to be. It was a good opener with great weather.”
The visit to the UCF Invitational and the specific groups that competed there represent the continuation of the coaching staff's new philosophy of taking more care to pace out the season. That philosophy extends to moments within each meet, where a student-athlete may be shut down under certain circumstances to save them for the long haul.
“Our mindset as coaches is to focus on the postseason,” said Vives. “Someone like Devon Willis, for example, is definitely a national-caliber performer, and that's why we're pacing those athletes and even this weekend we're going to limit what events we do. With Devon specifically, we're focusing on the triple jump this weekend instead of putting him also in the hurdles. The events are too close together on the schedule and we didn't want him running back and forth between events to get an attempt in without properly warming up.
“It's something new for us to see we have this number of student-athletes potentially be finalists in NCAA championships, so we really have to manage their seasons well, Vives continued. “Even with the distance runners at Stanford, if they can get early marks then they can go back to training and get ready for May and June when it really counts.”
It's one thing for a coach or coaching staff to put forth a new philosophy, but convincing the student-athletes, who want to compete each and every weekend, to buy in is a different matter. But Coach Vives explains that one of his responsibilities is to build the trust of his student-athletes and work with them to explain the reasoning for any changes or decisions so that everyone is on the same page and buying into the plan for the season.
“A big thing we do as coaches is try to develop that personal relationship with the student-athlete where they understand we have to make decisions for the good of the student-athlete, the team, and the season,” said Vives. 'We have a 4x400m relay capable of breaking 3:10, but we'll only put it out there this weekend after we see how everyone is feeling following their other events. We have a shuttle hurdles relay that could content for the title, and the kids were excited about competing in it this weekend, but we had to make a decision to focus on individual events. We don't want to water things down by having people do too many events.”
The UCF Invitational was put on the schedule this season because the Shamrock Invitational, the Danes usual season-opener, did not take place during this year's spring break, as it traditionally does. The meet would have required the student-athletes to miss too many days of class, so the coaching staffs picked a different meet this year instead. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
“I think the smaller meet is good. It's a little more intimate, and it's not as long,” said Vives. “Even with Puerto Rico, it was a long day in the sun. Later in the day, after you've been out there for 10 hours, performances can start to suffer. Our individual events in Puerto Rico were good because they were early, but it's tough to either double or run a relay at the end of the day. The good thing about UCF was there was quality competition up front, so our kids were challenged. We like both styles, and I think the smaller meet is good for starting out for people competing in their first meet of the season. But we'll take it year-by-year. Shamrock didn't work out this year because it wasn't during out spring break. Since we go by bus to that meet we'd have had to miss too many days of classes. But if it works out next year, Shamrock may be a possibility. The good thing about Shamrock is more of our kids get an opportunity to compete and open up early.”
The conclusion of the UCF Invitational represents the end of the opening phase of the 2019 outdoor season, which dates back to the end of the America East Indoor Championships. This weekend, in Florida and California, will be the first time during the outdoor season that the focus will be on big performances.
“We're excited for this weekend,” said Vives. “In the past, when we've gone so late indoors, I think it affected our readiness for those first early meets, including Florida Relays. But I think now we're in a position to perform better, with the schedule adjustment we've made this year.”
One matchup to look for in particular this weekend in Florida is UAlbany's top men's high hurdler Sidney Gibbons taking on the nation's best in the event, Grant Holloway from Florida. Gibbons has national aspirations in the 110m hurdles this year, and has won each of the last three high hurdles events at America East Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Holloway, who is one of the most dominant and dynamic athletes in men's track & field, has won all but one of his high hurdles races in his collegiate career, and has won each of three NCAA Indoor titles and two NCAA Outdoor titles in the high hurdles.
“Grant Holloway is the collegiate record-holder indoors, and they project his time to be the record outdoors as well,” said Vives. “Sidney had a chance to race him indoors in Arkansas. Which is good, because I want Sidney to learn to be comfortable in that setting, to feel like he belongs. If he is truly going to become First Team All-American, he's going to need to have that mentality. One of the things he has to learn is to not tense up so much in the finals when he's in that caliber of race. But he is getting himself used to seeing these types of athletes, and he's excited. That's the goal, for this race, for Penn Relays. They are great races for him because there aren't many opportunities to see this type of competition.”
The six distance runners competing this weekend will be doing so for the first time this outdoor season. They will compete in California, either at the Stanford Invitational, or the Sacramento State Distance Carnival.
“The distance runners are excited for this weekend,” said Vives. “This year we have six athletes going, and five of the six were accepted into the Stanford meet. The other will compete at Sacramento State. I think it will be a great opportunity for our steeplechasers. Hannah and Cara are ready to go, as is Kyle. And all of them know they'll have another opportunity at the Virginia Challenge in a few weeks.
“They're going to see the best distance runners in the country,” Vives continued. “It's kind of a known thing that the top distance runners show up to Stanford to get qualified early. Whatever race they're in this weekend will be competitive. We want them to get there and be ready to race.”
The message for the team this weekend takes on a different tone from the first two meets of the season, simply because the goals have now changed to performing at a high level from getting acclimated to the new season.
“Now we have had some preparation time, so we think they all understand that we're going to these meets looking for performances,” said Vives. “That's the purpose of this weekend. You're going to have weather, competition, and you're ready to go. We geared the training for that.”
