By Celine Hoang, James Nguyen and Heather Carr; Staff Writers
Fountain Valley’s Track and Field Team is hosting 3 Intersquad Meets, which are meets that only contains members of the teams running against each other, giving the meet a more relaxed environment, but still competitive nonetheless, on Friday.
This year will be the first time the Track and Field team try out the new interquad meets, similar to an All Comer’s meet where people race in order to get their automatic time and prepare for the season. An intersquad meet, however, only contains runners from the Barons Track team. No other teams or people outside of the team can compete in the meet.
“I think for freshman and new people to the track team it’s a really healthy experience because they, at a community college, it’s a very new experience and kind of scary for them, so to have our first meet in a familiar place, it gives them relief to the competition,” said jumper/sprinter, Julienne Chiang (‘16).
With the meets held at school, there is no travelling required, and meets go by very quickly. Many believe it’s a better way to prepare because of help from other teammates, whereas in other meets, teammates are too busy to help. The feel of competition is present, but the atmosphere is more relaxed.
“The Intersquad meet felt official even though it wasn’t actually official, but I enjoyed it, and it was fun helping stuff.” said distance runner, Daniel McClements (‘18).
For many, this was a scrimmage as all the races were against their teammates. For many new to the program, it was a chance to get a glimpse of what it was like to run in an actual meet. If it was all-comers, they would have to race against students in the community.
“The home meet is definitely cool because it gives you a little bit of a feel before the season starts,” said jumper Michelle Tran (‘17), “but I think that to be in a good place and still competing is definitely necessary because you want to be exposed to different people, different landscapes, different places.”
Track Head Coach Brian Bivens, was the one who came up with the interquad meets idea. He felt that many of the Saturday meets that the track teams went to were too long and too far of a drive.
“It came to me because we run in so many Saturday races that I wanted to give some kids some weekends off,” said Coach Bivens, “and I figured we’re already here on Friday, the parents wouldn’t have to drive the kids anywhere, like it might be good for that.”
A few differences from all-comers meets and intersquad meets are that on the sprinting side, music could be played, and coaches can be on the track. The races can be started and restarted if needed, and injured athletes can easily be pulled out from racing. The athletes have more time to help and motivate each other as the track is only theirs to use.
“I thought that at the meet that you would not have time to communicate with your friends and stuff, but I thought that it was really rad that you could cheer on your friends between each one, and that makes the track team such a good team that you guys can cheer on each other.” said Tran (‘17)
The dates for the next intersquad meets are Friday, December 12th and 19th.
