With the indoor conference meet only one month away, the Kats are stepping up their level of competition as they approach the next meet.
The Bearkat track team will head to Houston this weekend to participate in the Southwest Invitational Indoor Meet.
This is the third meet of the indoor season for the squad. Coach Greg Hinze and his athletes have high expectations of the weekend to come.
“We are using this meet as a conference simulation and will enter people as closely as possible to what they will run at the indoor conference championship,” Hinze said.
Hinze will be looking for improvement in all of his athletes this Saturday, but is looking specifically for his sprinters and jumpers to make significant progress.
The University of Texas at Arlington and University of Texas at San Antonio, both Southland Conference competitors the Kats will face at the indoor conference meet, will be among the competition the Bearkats will get a chance to look at on Saturday.
“We are anxious to see how we measure up against them, along with the other teams that will be there,” Hinze said. “This will also be the first scored meet we have been to this year, so we are going to try and score as many points as possible to try and place as high as we can.”
Raul Villarreal, competitor in the 3,000-meter, 5,000-meter and men’s distance medley relay, said he looks for personal improvement.
” My goal this weekend is to win the 5k and to walk away with a record in both that and the 3k,” Villarreal said. “I’m going to work it out to where, in the end, it’s a pure guts race, and if it is, I’m the only one who can win it. That’s just part of being a ‘warrior.'”
Vance Bridges will be competing in his first indoor meet of the year Saturday, running the first leg of the men’s distance medley relay.
“My goal this weekend is to finish my leg of the race in the lead,” Bridges said.
Joe Amburn, who has been making tremendous progress this year, is optimistic about his race as well.
“I would really like to break 4 minutes,10 seconds in the mile this weekend,” he said.
The meet will be held in the Athletics and Alumni Center on the University of Houston campus. Field events start at 9 a.m. and running events start at noon.