The Crimson Tide returns to action this weekend as the team travels to South Bend, Ind. for the Meyo Invitational.
The Tide is looking to carry over success from the Razorback Invitational, where they picked up their first automatic qualifier of the season on a national best 60-meter time by Ray Jadusingh. Since the meet, Marcus Rowland of Auburn University beat Jadusingh’s time.
“I think he (Jadusingh) wants it bad,” said head coach Harvey Glance. “When you have a situation like that, it only inspires you.”
Glance said he wants Jadusingh to focus on running like he usually does and to not get caught up in chasing records.
“The thing I want to stress to Ray, though, is I don’t want him to chase times,” Glance said. “I want him to execute the same way for every race and every meet.”
Due to its placement in the season, this meet will serve as a test of where the team stands now and how the team will perform in the future, Glance said.
“This meet here is a great measuring tool for how we are going to be,” Glance said. “I certainly expect some good marks and I think there is a chance we challenge some school records.”
Tide runners will be looking to post fast times, as the Loftus Center at the University of Notre Dame is known for having one of the best tracks in the nation.
“This is probably one of the greatest tracks in the entire nation and we are always excited about getting on it and seeing how our athletes perform” Glance said.
The meet will also provide the team with a look at schools they might be up against during the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
“Not only is this a great facility, but also you are going to have some of the best teams in the country,” Glance said. “Year in and year out this meet produced more NCAA qualifiers than probably any meet in the country from the sprints to the jumps to the throws it does it all.”
Another advantage of the meet is that it will pair the team up against teams not just from the south, but also from all across the nation.
“Washington comes down from the Seattle and they compete and you [get] a lot of people from the Big East as well as teams like Northern Iowa and Drake from the Midwest,” he said.
The Tide will once again be holding out two of their top runners in Tyson David and Emmanuel Bor. However, neither injury is considered to be severe.
“We have still yet to compete Bor who is nursing a slight injury in his calf and David is going to open up next week in Seattle,” Glance said. “It is nothing serious, they are just nagging injuries right now and we want to give them the opportunity to go into this championship season healthy.”
The Tide will look to stay hungry this weekend, as Glance stressed to his team going into the meet that success is given to those who want it the most.
“There are a lot of good athletes, but the great ones are always the ones who are competitive and have that killer instinct.”
