In their final preparation for the Conference USA Championship meet Feb. 25 in Houston, the Marquette track teams will travel across town to participate in the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panther Tuneup at the Klotsche Center Friday.
The format for the event will be that of a double dual meet, with Marquette squaring off against UWM and two of the Panthers' Horizon League foes, Illinois-Chicago and Loyola.
With conference championships less than two weeks away, Marquette head coach Dave Uhrich can ill afford to have any of his top competitors either injure or overwork themselves in a meet such as this. Any Golden Eagles who are rehabbing the slightest injuries or sicknesses will not compete Friday.
Some top competitors will participate in the meet but in fewer or less taxing events.
"We'll have some athletes just do one event instead of two or run the 400 instead of the 800 for example," Uhrich said. "We'll be very careful with anyone who's had a nagging injury, and they just won't compete."
Uhrich specifically mentioned triple jumper Charles Mashozhera, who is a prime contender for the conference championship in his event.
"Charles' hamstring has been bothering him a little bit, so he won't compete this weekend," Uhrich said.
Despite that this meet, appropriately named "the Tuneup," is little more than an extra workout before conference championships, Uhrich does not want his charges to lose focus before Houston.
"Obviously the big thing is staying healthy before conference championships, but we don't want anyone to lose their intensity," Uhrich said.
The Panther Tuneup has an added point of interest for locals, since this will be the only "home" meet for both Marquette and UWM this season. Many of the athletes on both rosters have competed either with or against each other at the high school level, so there is some degree of familiarity between the two squads. But Marquette's focus is clear.
"It's kind of a fun thing since the meet is in Milwaukee and it is really our only home meet this year," Uhrich said. "But we're strictly tuning up for the week after and really only focusing on getting ready for conference championships."
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 17 2005.