Season Preview: Indoor Track & Field

The bar was raised in 2024 as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s (UTRGV) women’s and men’s track & field teams exceeded expectations – at least, the expectations of those outside of the program.

The Vaqueros knew they had a special group and proved that to everyone else, taking fourth in the women’s team standings at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) indoor and outdoor meets while seeing significant improvement on the men’s side. They carried that momentum into the cross country season in the fall as both teams earned their best conference finishes in four seasons to cap their inaugural Southland Conference (SLC) campaign.

With the calendar turned to 2025, the attention turns back to track & field, and the excitement is high. Head coach Shareese Hicks is thrilled with the leadership and preparation her team displayed as they returned to campus from winter break, and she believes they’ll be ready to make waves from the first meet.

“We did some fitness testing the other day and everyone came back better or equal to where they were when they left for break, and that’s all we can ask for. My confidence increased a lot seeing that,” Hicks said. “We had some really great leadership contribute to that. They reached out to each other as teammates and held each other accountable, and it’s huge having that kind of leadership to man the ship while everyone was away. I think we have the opportunity for a very strong opener to set the tone for a very strong season.”

UTRGV begins the indoor season Friday at the LSU Purple Tiger. Instead of loading up the schedule with meets in back-to-back meets, Hicks and her staff are taking a different approach this year. They’ve strategically scheduled all three non-conference meets two weeks apart to allow the student-athletes time to rest and hone-in on specifics so they feel prepared to attack each meet with everything they have. The goal is for this routine to have them feeling energized and eager to compete come their first SLC Indoor Championships in March.

“This year, we’re taking some time in between meets to really take advantage of the weather we have down here and let the student-athletes be at home, be in class, be a little less stressed out and then put it all on the line when it’s time to compete,” Hicks explained. “I feel like that’s going to work much better for this team because we have so many veterans, so we’re not really using those indoor meets to learn how to run indoors. They already know what to do and they’ve passed that knowledge on to the freshmen and made them a lot more comfortable.”

As Hicks heads into her fourth year at the helm, it’s her foundational recruiting class of 2022 setting the tone for the program. The junior core, comprised of top performers and leaders such as Hannah Hilding, Jedidiah Udunna, Sam Johnson II, Aaron Cooper, Nayla Harris, Symoria Adkins and others, has really taken ownership of the program and set the standards high.

“When we have deadlines, they’re the first ones. If someone has questions, they’re the first to answer. They’re leading by example. This is their team. We’re just guiding them toward elite levels when it comes to competition, but they’re very invested in this,” Hicks said. “That class is extremely special and is the sole factor that we’re coming into this season very confident.”

With the veterans making sure everyone stayed focus during break, the Vaqueros are in great form as the indoor season opener gets closer and closer.

It’s easy to look at the many accomplishments from 2024 and think, of course that’s motivating this year’s squad to achieve even more. But Hicks has her team looking through a different perspective – one that’s driving them in an even deeper way.

“I talk about all the things we didn’t do. We weren’t as serious over the break, we weren’t getting enough rest during the season, all the things we know that young people tend to do. Them seeing that out on the line, they were like, ‘Man, we were able to accomplish this and we really weren’t as disciplined and focused as we could have been,'” Hicks said. “So, this year, that’s been their mantra. ‘Let me do the things I haven’t done before in order to get what I haven’t had before,’ which is a championship.”

That mindset is pushing UTRGV’s determination to do big things in the first year competing in the Southland Conference. Hicks knows they have the talent in all event groups to stack up points at the big meet, and even more, she knows her team’s chemistry just needs one catalyst to spark something major.

“Going into a new conference, they understand that we’re the new kids on the block we have a target on our backs, so let’s go out and represent the best we can,” Hicks said. “Any meet can be anybody’s day for something really, really incredible. This team is so close, all it takes is one person to set it off and create a historical meet that leads to some kind of legacy.”