When it comes to freshmen, all people think about are young, naïve and green rookies who need to learn the ropes, but that isn’t the case for Rebekah Greene and Andres Arroyo.
Their youth is what allows the two athletes on the top-ranked men’s and No. 2 women’s track teams to stand out. They’ll both get a chance to shine at the Gators’ final home event of the season, the Tom Jones Memorial Invite on Saturday at the Percy Beard Track.
Both Greene and Arroyo have done what most freshmen haven’t done — compete immediately on the first and second teams for the Gators during the indoor and outdoor seasons.
For Greene, being recruited out of her home country of New Zealand created a different type of experience.
“I lived about five hours away from my coach in New Zealand, so I didn’t see her much,” Greene said. “My training group was five hours away as well, and I just trained by myself a lot. What I found here (UF) the biggest thing is training with people, it’s helped me a lot to train properly.”
In a similar case, Arroyo has his own freshman journey.
Competing alongside senior mid-distance runner Sean Obinwa has helped Arroyo mature out of his high school habits quickly.
“We pretty much learn every little thing from Sean. He teaches us the basics. We pick up all these things, so we use him to gain that knowledge,” Arroyo said. “I’m not in high school anymore; I have to focus on growing instead of trying to compare myself to anybody because I’m in the learning stage again.”
Arroyo have competed at one of the biggest stages of their careers already as just freshmen.
Greene competed in the distance medley relay during NCAA Indoors in Albuquerque, N.M., and Arroyo in the 4x800-meter relay.
Adding to their experience, both freshmen phenoms competed at their first Florida Relays. They both notched top finishes.
Greene, along with her teammates Cory McGee, Agata Strausa and Lannie Whittaker, dominated the field in the distance medley relay with a first place finish.
In addition, Arroyo, Obinwa, Ryan Schnulle, and Donnie Lee Jr. finished second place in the 4x800.
The Orlando native also finished fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:47.57, which was a personal record and good for a 10th-place tie on the UF all-time list.
What both athletes also have in common is their role as the opening leg for their team in their respective events.
Both runners have earned large roles already and look to utilize what they’ve already learned going into their second home meet of the season.
“The last couple weeks of training have gone really well. We reduced the mileage and done more specific training, which has been really good,” Greene said. “Hopefully it can come together on Saturday.”
Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence
