Ever since he was hired as the director of Virginia track and field and cross country, coach Bryan Fetzer has preached a motto to his teams: “Get better everyday in every way.” This weekend, the Virginia outdoor track and field teams will get to set the bar to improve from by competing at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla. from March 31-April 2.
Last weekend, the Cavaliers sent a small delegation to compete at the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond. There, the men’s and women’s teams won a total of five events. However, according to Fetzer, because of the small nature of the meet, it didn’t count as an official meet. This means that the Florida Relays will be the official start to the 2016 outdoor track and field season for Virginia.
“The Florida Relay is when we actually open up the season with a [full] team,” Fetzer said. “We’re excited to get the team going this weekend.”
While Fetzer decided to rest one of his team’s stars, junior Filip Mihaljevic, he is giving the green light to junior Henry Wynne, who is coming off an indoor track and field national title in the men’s mile.
“I’m very excited to go up there and compete with some of the top talent,” he said. “It’s nice to get a good race under your legs before bigger meets later in the season.”
Wynne said his recent championship is something he wants to hold onto, but not lean on.
“I’ll train just as hard as I did in indoor and compete just as hard in outdoor,” he said.
Wynne said he has many aspirations for this season, including doing well at the NCAA Championships, beating his personal record in the 1500 meter and qualifying for the Olympics. However, contributing to his team and giving them a chance at winning an ACC Championship is just as important, he said.
Currently, the women’s track and field team is unranked, and the men’s team is ranked No. 5. In the race for program of the year, which combines national finishes from cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, the Cavaliers come in at seventh after the completion of the first two seasons. Last year, the Virginia men finished fifth for best program.
“Our goal is to be back in that spot and be a top-five program overall,” Fetzer said.
While this meet is important to him, Fetzer said that a good result at the end of the year is the ultimate aim for both of his teams. To get these results, he is currently having his team train hard.
“Putting up staggering marks and performances [is] not necessarily what we’re looking for,” he said. “This is just a continuation of a process of the training hard.”
For Wynne, he has confidence that his team can obtain a great amount of success by the end of the year, he said.
“A lot of people don’t compete in indoors just because they have killer outdoor events,” he said. “I think we can really compete for a team title at [the ACC Championships].”
Some of these events that are only offered outdoors include steeplechase, hammer throw and javelin.
With myriad competitions, it can be easy for athletes to get caught up in the results of various meets. However, Fetzer said he preaches focusing on the season as a whole to his teams.
“We emphasize to our athletes that the culmination of the season is not each week — the culmination of the season is the whole picture,” he said.
While the season is very young, the Cavaliers will look to start off this season on the right foot, Fetzer said.
“They’re excited to get back into it,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of motivation that needs to be conjured up.”
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