The Arizona track and field teams are prepared for yet another busy weekend as they face off in their first two away meets of the outdoor season.
Today, a handful of Wildcats will compete in the Mesa Classic, hosted by Mesa Community College, in hopes of earning postseason qualifying marks. The competition will include Arizona State and several community college teams.
The majority of the Arizona athletes will spend today and tomorrow contending in the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational in Westwood, Calif. The UCLA-hosted event will include five men's and six women's collegiate squads. The men's field includes CS Los Angeles, CS Northridge, UCLA and Utah State. The women will do battle against the same schools, plus UNLV.
"Our stiffest competition will come from UCLA, as far as a total team," UA head coach Fred Harvey said. "We have a lot of good individual athletes. So in a scoring event, there is no question we would be a formidable team because we have a lot of crossover athletes in men's hurdles and distance."
In the first Trackwire 25 rankings of the outdoor season, Arizona and UCLA are the only two competing schools to make the cut. In the men's standings, Arizona is ranked 12th, while UCLA came in 16th. On the women's side, UCLA ÷ ranked second ÷ is the team to beat, while the Wildcats are positioned 15th. The Trackwire 25 is a power ranking system that predicts team scores at the NCAA Championships based on the season's performances.
"(The rankings are) about performance. When you get track and field rankings, it is pretty legitimate because we ran the times," Harvey said. "We (have to) go out against UCLA and the club teams and continue to get better."
Sophomore distance runner Amber Steen is confident the Arizona teams will continue to improve through the rest of the outdoor season.
"It's nice to be ranked nationally, but you always want to do better," Steen said. "I think 15th is fine, but as we get closer to Pac-10 (Championships), I think we could do better than that."
Coming off the Jim Click Shootout on March 27, coaches and athletes agree that the Wildcats are at an advantage going into this weekend's competition.
"I think we definitely benefit from an off weekend," Harvey said. "It allows us to get a little bit higher-level training in, and there is less wear and tear on body in terms of travel."
"I think (having a weekend off) leaves us more refreshed, especially with traveling outside the state and going somewhere new," Steen said. "A training day on Saturday instead of racing is really good for us."
The Wildcats have already accumulated 34 Pac-10 and 19 NCAA qualifying marks this season.