The UConn men’s track and field team host a heptatholon in Hugh S. Greer Field House. It is a two day event that started on Thursday Dec 7 and will finish on Friday Dec 8. (Photo by Charlotte Lao/The Daily Campus)
Although UConn in the past few weeks has been flying down south frequently for their spring season meets, the Spec Towns Invitational in Athens, Georgia is not a place the team is familiar with. The team’s last meet at the University of Georgia was at least five years ago, according to head coach Greg Roy.
“The reason why we’re here instead of the Miami invitational where we’ve frequented the past few years is due to schedule changes,” Roy said.
Although the facility is new, the competition the team will be facing is what they’ve been competing against for the past few weeks, and Roy said he’s excited to go.
“It’s a high level meet, great teams in the event all around so it’s gonna be great competition,” Roy said. “We have a chance to get into some good weather and perform at a great facility.”
Last weekend at the Florida Relays, the team was limited on personnel but Roy said that the team now has everything they need to compete.
After this weekend, the bigger of the spring meets start piling up as the UConn Northeast Challenge is closing in. Roy said that he has a pretty good idea of what the core group will be for that, so the Spec Towns Invitational is a great opportunity for any person outside that core to show up.
At the UConn Northeast Challenge, the teams will all be from the area and UConn is familiar with each school. At the places they are traveling to like this upcoming event, they are seeing schools from all over the country. Roy said that this benefits the players ability to adapt to all competition.
“It’s great to get out and see different people,” Roy said. “We experiment with our schedule, and try to find that balance between not overriding the travel, and exposing our kids to new levels of competition.”
The Invitational will go from Friday to Saturday with the first events being the decathlon, in which sophomore Jordan Torney will be representing UConn.
Daniel Dashefsky is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached at daniel.dashefsky@uconn.edu.
