It is a few minutes before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17. Coach Bryan Fetzer stands by the fence around Lannigan Field as a couple of ROTC stragglers chug around the track. Fetzer soon ambles back to the open shed, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his team.
A few minutes pass and senior sprinter Jordan Lavender, along with two of her teammates, appears from around the corner. Lavender barely has time to compliment her coach’s clean-shaven look before Fetzer suggests that she and the others begin their warm up. He is ready to roll.
The Cavalier outdoor season has arrived, and Virginia’s first home meet in 2015 – the Virginia Cup – is only four days away. There is good reason to be pumped up.
“Mentally, we are very excited and confident in our abilities following the indoor season,” sophomore Nathan Kiley said. “We saw success throughout competition in each and every event, which helped us grow closer as a team. And our team has never been this healthy.”
Kiley was one of six Cavaliers, including redshirt-freshman Filip Mihaljevic, sophomores Jordan Young, Mike Marsella and Henry Wynne, and senior Peyton Hazzard, to challenge the nation’s best at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.
Their combined efforts over March 13-14 earned the men’s side 23rd place, the top Virginia finish since 2010. And their success established a benchmark for this outdoor season.
“Our team has set the goal of trying to qualify as many athletes for the NCAA Outdoor Championships as possible and to place within the top-25 teams like we did indoors,” Kiley said.
To have this opportunity, Kiley and his teammates understand that they will again need to deliver at the ACC Outdoor Championships. Plus, they want to win the whole thing.
“Our biggest goal is to win a team ACC Championship down at Florida State this season,” Kiley said. “The last time we won it was in 2009 there, so we are hoping history will repeat itself.”
Fetzer cannot stop praising Kiley and company for their outcome in Arkansas. In his mind, those athletes laid the foundation for a winning program. They gave their teammates the confidence to set and achieve high goals.
“23rd in the country is something we should be proud of. It is something we can build on,” Fetzer said. “And this NCAA group was made up of five sophomores, one freshman, and one senior. We were hands down the youngest team there. It wasn’t even close.”
Overall, the Virginia track and field program is full of youth. The women’s side, which failed to send any athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships, features 15 freshmen (including two redshirts) and 14 sophomores.
“The women are ridiculously young. A lot of them are coming straight from high school. Some still want to have their hair all made up when they compete,” Fetzer said. “Younger teams tend to have a lot of highs and lows. It always takes time for them to find their way.”
Lavender, seniors Sarah DeVita and Miora Cronin and junior Peyton Chaney guide these young women down the right path each day, showing them what it takes to be consistent at the Division I level.
Meanwhile, a young men’s side depends on the leadership of junior decathlete Christian Lavorgna and 10,000-meter runner Zach Herriot. Both veterans compete in two of the most demanding track and field events, and each exemplifies the ideal teammate.
“Christian does a great job of leading his teammates. He’s a hard worker,” Fetzer said. “Zach is another guy everybody rallies around. He didn’t compete at all during indoors, so we are excited to have him back for outdoors.”
More athletes arrive beside the shed. Beneath his orange-tinted shades, Fetzer’s eyes are locked between the lanes of the track. He cannot wait for Saturday and all that it will bring.
“We’re ready to go and excited to back home. Hopefully, our guys and girls will get their peers to come out and watch them compete,” Fetzer said. That’s something I love to see.”
This weekend will consist of a team-scored invitational versus local schools: Liberty, Norfolk State, Radford, and James Madison. Fetzer thinks of the Virginia Cup as an early season basketball or baseball game. It isn’t an exhibition; it does count. But it’s a shorter, home meet and another opportunity to drill down on technique.
Though the NCAA athletes will take Saturday off to rest up for next weekend’s Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond, they – like their teammates – are thrilled to be back home and back at it.
“The team is ecstatic and thankful to have three quality home meets where we can compete at the same place as where we train,” Kiley said. “It gives us an advantage knowing how the track, runways, and throwing circles feel. It’s also great when we get a home crowd to come out and cheer us on.”
The Virginia Cup is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Lannigan Field.
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