Following a disappointing performance last weekend in Flagstaff, the Arizona track and field team hopes to bounce back today and tomorrow when it heads to Boise, Idaho, to compete in the Athletics.com Invitational and Multi-Events against Stanford, Oregon, Idaho and Boise State.
Head coach Fred Harvey said that while his team didn't finish as high as he had hoped last weekend in the UA-ASU-NAU Tri-Meet, the teams have yet to reach their potential.
"We feel, especially on the men's side, that we can make a run for a top-5 position indoors, as well as outdoors, at the national championships," Harvey said.
The men's team features the 2004 Pacific 10 Conference Men's Track and Field Athlete of the Year in junior Robert Cheseret, who was also named the 2004 Pac-10 Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Cheseret won the 800-meter and one-mile runs in Flagstaff.
Junior hurdler Jeff Hunter said he hopes to return to form in his first meet of the year, after spraining his ankle in his hotel room the night before the meet last Friday.
"I just want to get back in the groove of things," Hunter said.
Harvey said that while the men's and women's teams may lack depth, they return a lot of veteran leadership, the likes of Hunter included.
"That's what we planned for over the last three years with redshirting some athletes," Harvey said.
Some members of the track team, including freshman Bobby McCoy, who is also a receiver on the UA football team, won't make the trip in order to train.
"We're going to give him a couple of weeks of training, and then run him the following week," said Harvey referring to the status of McCoy.
The women's team has suffered through some injury problems as well.
Senior Sharifa Jones, who has battled two separate injuries in the last three weeks, ran the 60 hurdles in 8.42 seconds last weekend while qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
Though she qualified, Jones said she was disappointed.
"I wanted to run at least 8.20 or better," Jones said, "but that didn't happen.
"I can't put too much pressure on myself for my first meet, and my leg is getting better, so my second meet should be much better," she said.
The men's and women's teams finished second and third, respectively, last weekend.
"It was definitely a pleasing meet," Harvey said. "We lost to Arizona State and that's never a good thing, but you have to keep it in perspective as to what you're trying to accomplish."