The Arizona track and field program is filled with potential future Olympic athletes, ranging from hometown products to international talent.
Going into his 23rd season as the Director of Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field, Fred Harvey has established what he considers to be one of the top programs in the country.
“I feel strongly and have much passion that understanding what our sport is, we can not only transition into a revenue sport, but the people that we touch in our community, and that’s one of our pillars, the community of southern Arizona, we can be absolutely amazing,” Harvey said.
After a very successful Big 12 Indoor Championships performance in Lubbock, Texas, Harvey now looks to have his program ready for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
“The big vision is we have to be able to hit it at the NCAA championships,” Harvey said.
Arizona is sending six athletes to indoor nationals, which is Friday and Saturday in Virginia Beach, Va.
High jumpers
Two Wildcats that placed high in the high jumps at the Big 12 Indoor Championships were Emma Gates and Paris Mikinski, who placed second and third respectively.
Gates, a junior, credits her coach Bob Myers for setting a high bar and keeping expectations at a championship level.
“Bob has set goals at the end of the year, and two of my goals were to jump 190 and to go to nationals, so I’m just really happy to be achieving those goals,” Gates said.
Myers, who focuses on the high jumps, appreciates how hard both Gates and Mikinski work and how far they have come.
“They bring it every day,” Myers said. “They do all the little things, their fueling, their diet. You know, to be a high jumper, it’s not just going out and working hard every day, but it’s a lifestyle, and they’ve really committed to the things that they needed to do to become better.”
Mikinski, who attended Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, takes pride in being able to represent her hometown whenever she competes.
“I don’t think I realized when I got here, like, what it meant to represent my hometown,” Mikinski said. “It’s just a very proud feeling to represent my school, my high school, and my hometown.”
Horizontal jumps & multis
The relationship between horizontal jumps & multis coach Dino Dodig and senior Reinaldo Rodrigues did not start with sunshine and rainbows.
It was the trust level that was missing for Rodrigues with Dodig being a new coach.
“I get a call from Reinaldo for the first time, and we’re talking for a couple minutes and start talking about the sport and he says, ‘You know what coach I got to tell you something. I don’t trust you,’ and I was like alright that’s good,” said Dodig.
The unfamiliarity was the gap in trust for the two, but Dodig knew that he was getting honesty from Rodrigues.
However, Dodig knew that the 100 percent commitment from both parties would lead to a golden story.
“He has very high expectations,” Dodig said. “That makes him a tough personality, but that also means he understands where he wants to be.”
Rodrigues finished second in the long jump at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, and acknowledges that the rough start for him and his coach was needed to be where they are today.
“We’re from different backgrounds, he’s from Serbia, I’m from Brazil, and we kind of find each other in this mix,” Rodrigues said. “So I’m just happy he had the same mentality that I have. We have the same expectations, and we’re just working together.”
Throwing
One of the highlights from the Big 12 Indoor Championships was senior Zach Landa placing first in the shot put. Safe to say that it meant everything to Landa to place first.
“That’s why we put all the work in,” Landa said. “That’s why we do what we do to, you know, put some points up for our team, but also come back with some hardware.”
Landa follows in the footsteps of former Wildcat Jordan Geist, knowing that there are big shoes to fill.
“I try to be like a sponge,” Landa said. “Just try to soak it all up. Try to learn from him. He’s quiet like me. Doesn’t talk a lot, so I try to lead by example, like he did, and he just passed on all the knowledge he could down to me.”
Landa now tries to pass his knowledge down to sophomore Tyler Michelini, who placed seventh in shot put at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
“Just being able to have the older guys just really helps us as a younger group, be able to perform, and kind of gives us something to look forward to trying to claim those titles,” Michelini said.
Assistant coach Lucais Mackay knows that everything can’t be all about throwing and getting better, so he values the small group sessions he is able to have with his athletes.
“We spent a lot of time out there,” said Mackay. “You get to know about family stuff. You get to know about food things. You get to know about emotional states, with academics and everything else. So that’s all part of what they’re able to put out on the field.”
Sprints and relays
Landa was not the only athlete to finish first in their event at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. Senior sprinter Trayvion White-Austin finished first in the 200-meter dash.
Not only was his first place finish a personal best but a school record, with a time of 20.50 seconds. His coach Francesca Green has been able to watch him grow from a young boy, to the fastest runner ever at Arizona.
“I’ve known him since he was eight years old,” Green said. “Like I said, he’s from Tucson, and he is someone when you look at him, he’s very unassuming. Most people don’t realize just how big and powerful he is, just based on his size, but he has the heart of a lion.”
White-Austin knew he wanted to be a Wildcat from a young age, and being able to leave his legacy leaves something for his teammates to chase after.
“I kind of told my teammates, ‘Okay, I might be leaving this year but I’m making my records unbeatable for you guys,’ and I’m wanting them to beat it but I’m going to make it hard for them,” said White-Austin.
The relationship with his teammates is something that motivates him to put his best effort out, but it is not his only motivation.
“You do it for my teammates, do it for my family, my coach,” said White-Austin. “Do it all for them, and I just want to be a good example for them.”
The emotions flowed for Harvey knowing that White-Austin has become the fastest sprinter in school history, despite going through so much adversity throughout his life.
“He’s a young man that’s came through this community and our youth program, the Tucson Lead Athletic Club, and fought through a lot of things, and he’s the fastest sprinter that we ever had in the history of the University of Arizona,” Harvey said.