The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men’s track and field team hosted the Squig Converse Invite Jan. 30-31, quickly showing progress early in the season. The Warhawks faced numerous conference opponents, providing athletes with an opportunity to measure their progress against stout competition.
Head coach Mike Johnson said the invite served as a checkpoint, especially with the conference meet just weeks away. To him, this weekend was about progress and preparation.
“Our whole mission is to try to just gradually improve, keep people healthy, and get to the conference meet,” Johnson said. “We’re always looking at where we are performance-wise, time of year, and what’s our pace.”
Johnson said the Warhawks showed promising signs throughout the meet.
“We had two top 10 performances today,” Johnson said. “We’re trending in a lot of good directions.”
Rather than focusing solely on individual results, Johnson emphasized the importance of using early meets to help prepare athletes for high-pressure situations later in the season.
“When we go to the conference meet, you’ve got all these things where you don’t want to be rattled by this competition,” Johnson said. “Let’s work through these things right now.”
Junior short sprinter Caleb Beightol, who placed first in the men’s 60-meter finals with a season best of 6.72 seconds, said the meet offered a chance to measure his progress compared to last year.
“It’s nice to know where I am now as opposed to last year,” Beightol said. “This is a faster time than what I ran at this meet last year.”
This improvement gives him confidence as the Warhawks continue preparing for the conference meet later in the season.
“This isn’t going to be the fastest I run, I still have a lot left in the tank,” Beightol said.
Another strong performance came from Jer’Von Anderson, a freshman who placed second in the men’s high jump with a personal record of 2.01 meters and now owns the eighth-highest jump in program history.
As a freshman, Anderson said he is focusing less on results and more on learning and consistency for his first indoor season.
“Going off of what I can do and seeing what areas I can improve in, how I can constantly stay improving, and seeing what I can work on in practice or work on in general,” Anderson said.
He added that preparation and visualization play a major role in his approach to competition.
“Just revive… I do a lot more visualization than I do actually jumping, so I know what points I’m aiming to improve on and how to make it look like reality,” Anderson said.
The Warhawks take the road up to Stevens Point Feb. 7 to compete in the Big Dawg Invite. Coach Johnson said the meet will serve as an opportunity for rest, adjustment and refinement before returning home.
“That’s where we’re really going to tweak some things and try to really go against those groups and see how that works for us,” Johnson said. “So it’s a little bit of rest and restoration week and a minimum workload.”
The Warhawks will return home following the Big Dawg Invite to host the Midwest Elite Feb. 13-14, as they continue to prepare for conference competition.
