Above the din of Saturday afternoon’s UNC Invitational indoor track and field meet, several distinct voices could be heard throughout Eddie Smith Field House.
One belonged to a Radford coach who was yelling split times to a runner competing in the men’s 800 meters. Another belonged to a UNC-Charlotte runner asking a teammate if she would pick him up a sandwich from a nearby Subway.
Still two others belonged to a pair of North Carolina teammates who were cheering on a fellow Tar Heel in the women’s 3,000 meters.
While the belief that track and field is solely an individual sport might be prevalent among outsiders, those involved say it’s quite the opposite.
In fact, team camaraderie is perhaps the most important part of long weekend meets. Almost all indoor competitions span two or more days, and many athletes have to wait several hours — or days — between competing in their respective events.
“You work with these people all week — you’d like to see them do well,” said Jon Krysa, a sophomore sprinter from UNC-Wilmington. “Like the team I’m on — we’re really pretty tight, so everybody usually knows when someone from our team is running. We’re all watching our guy.”
The togetherness of the host team also was evident throughout the meet.
Several UNC runners congregated on the balcony of the building’s second floor to encourage their teammates, and another group stood cheering between the long jump and triple jump runways.
“I’m just trying to keep the team spirits high,” said junior sprinter and jumper Antonio Tucker. “You see your other teammates, you try to keep them encouraged as they go around … try to get them psyched up.”
