The Virginia track and field team will host Maryland, Pennsylvania and Columbia Saturday for its first outdoor quad meet of the season. After a slew of invitationals and relays for both the men’s and women’s teams, it will be a change of pace.
Previously, the team competed kicked off the outdoor season in the Raleigh Relays and Hurricane Twilight Invitational, with the team splitting up for those events. The team also competed last week in the Texas Relays.
At the Texas Relays, sophomore Oghenakpobo Efekoro placed first in the men’s shot put with a final throw of 19.63m. Freshman Jordan Scott also highlighted the meet, as he finished third in the men’s triple jump with a 16.34m leap. It was another solid finish for Scott, who is making a mark in his first collegiate season.
“We saw after the indoor season how close we were to winning an ACC title,” Scott said. “It would be really nice to come in as a freshman and help the team make that happen.”
Although the women’s team is ranked outside the Top 25, the men are posted at No. 9 with a total of 194.73 points. Both teams have massive potential to earn points this weekend with the quad meet. With fewer teams to compete with, it is just as important as a big invitational meet, with many contending schools to earn qualifying points for the team.
Although there are fewer teams to focus on, the preparation is similar to that of other meets.
“We treat every meet like it’s a very important meet,” Scott said. “We don’t want to differentiate between invitational meets and quad meets because at the end of the day we still need to earn qualifying standards for the team.”
Coach Bryan Fetzer reiterated this point to the team leading up to this weekend. Although Scott said the team will take this weekend to focus on weaker events — he will only be competing in long jump — it is essential for the team not to overlook the quad meet.
“The marks you get from this meet helps you qualify to NCAAs and because it is a scored meet, a team will come out of the weekend in first place,” Scott said. “Just because it is a four team meet does not mean you shouldn’t try your best.”
The men’s throw team has had immense success throughout this season and is a group to watch out for this Saturday. Along with Efekoro, senior Jordan Young is also a leader for the throwers and previously had a successful finish to his indoor season at nationals.
On the women’s side, sophomores Mia Barron and Kelly McKee will compete in jumps this weekend, looking to add points for the women’s side and work their way up the rankings. In addition, senior Chimere Ezumah is coming off an impressive indoor season, and this quad meet has potential to be another solid performance for her.
The meet will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday in Charlottesville.
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