Watch a collegiate track and field meet in person for even a few minutes and it’s difficult not to notice just how many different things are going on. It’s one of the unique aspects of the sport, just how many different ways there are to win. Running faster, throwing and jumping farther or jumping higher.Among the top programs in collegiate track and field, the mold for success varies just as much as the program of events at championship meets. Some top schools build winning team scores through excellence in field events, others in sprints and others again use a distance-based formula to go for titles.Under first-year head coach Edrick Floreal, the Kentucky track and field program has yet to identify a singe group of athletes that stands out as the major point-earners at championship meets like the Southeastern Conference Championships, which take place this weekend.UK boasts a balanced squad, with no group standing out particularly over the other. And under the new coaching staff, multiple athletes have taken huge steps forward this season.For two of those Wildcats, that success has come in very different styles, an illustration of just how many ways there are to get the job done when it comes to finding a way to win at track and field.Michelle Canterna’s path to success has been long and winding, but given her recent string of results, it seems she’s struck the right chord.She was recruited and competed her freshman year at Kentucky as a long jumper. Being a former gymnast for 12 years of her life, Canterna would perform tumble routines in the field during her downtime after practice. The coaches joked with her and threw a pole vault in her hand, telling her to try it out. She went through drills and even competed in an event as a sophomore, clearing 11 feet before getting injured. Then things changed over the summer for the redshirt sophomore. Her previous jumps coach had never been a pole vaulter before and with the new coaching staff on board, assistant coach Will Thomas, responsible for the team’s vertical jumpers, has been a major key to her success. Thomas, a former decathlete, has brought the experience of competing in multiple events at the highest levels of Division I to the Wildcats.By Canterna’s own estimation, the new training regime under Thomas has been the catalyst for her unprecedented success this season. As a former decathlete, Thomas can relate the experience of having been a long jumper and pole vaulter, something that may have seemed daunting when Canterna first made the switch in events.”I like the fact that I can come in my first year vaulting and he was able to mold me,” Canterna said. “It was really nice because I’ve never vaulted before so being able to be molded by a new coach is awesome and obviously he is doing a great job if I can hit heights that people haven’t at UK before. It’s just humbling because I had no idea that I could do it and he showed me that I can which was awesome.”Under Thomas’ guidance, Canterna has been a force for the Wildcats this year, breaking the school’s all-time pole vault record clearing 3.96 meters / 12’11.75″ at the Miami RedHawk Invitational last Saturday. The height came a week after the Florence, Ky., native set the UK outdoor record at the Heart of the Bluegrass Classic, Kentucky’s first home meet since 1996.On the track side of things, distance runner Matt Hillenbrand’s story is more along the lines of a normal track athlete. The junior had tremendous success in high school, winning state championships as a distance runner. He has kept it going at Kentucky.His first two years at UK were good, but he has had a breakthrough junior season.”It was a combination of a lot of hard work that finally paid off over the past three years,” Hillenbrand said.At the SEC Indoor Championships in February, Hillenbrand claimed the mile race with a time of 4:01.55. He has continued his excellence by posting a personal-record time of 3:44.66 at the IU Billy Hayes Invitational last Friday, finishing second in the heat. His PR time is currently good enough to qualify him for the NCAA Regional Preliminary Championships if the season ended today.According to Hillenbrand, a greater sense of self-belief has been the biggest factor in his newfound success this season. While Canterna’s background may contrast quite a bit with Hillenbrand’s, the SEC champion believes his teammate’s success stems from the same source.”We have worked a lot of longer distances and a lot of aerobic workouts, but it’s really just the perception of what being good is,” Hillenbrand said. “That’s really the change.”The Wildcats travel to Columbia, Mo., this week to compete at the SEC Outdoor Championships. The event is the final invitational on the Cats’ schedule before NCAA Regionals May 23-25. Canterna has high hopes for her future both short and long term. She has the 13-foot mark on her mind at the SECs after falling just short of the feat at Miami, but her primary goal is to be one of the top eight finishers at the SEC Championships, earning valuable points for the UK cause.”Right now my main focus is scoring at SECs,” Canterna said.Looking past SECs and toward regionals, nationals and even next year, Canterna is aiming to vault in the upper 13s and possibly clear as high as 14 feet. With the 2014 SEC Championships set to be hosted at the UK track and field complex in 2014, Canterna feels like she can use this week’s experience to prepare for a great performance a year from now.”I really think the more I work at it and even over the summer I am going to get bigger, stronger, faster and I am going to utilize this facility more to my advantage knowing that it will be our home meet that hopefully I can dominate,” Canterna said.Hillenbrand is looking to defend his indoor mile crown at the comparable outdoor 1,500M and he likes his team’s chances to perform well this weekend given UK’s greater depth with the outdoor meet program compared to indoors. UK can utilize the help of senior Luis Orta – who finished second at last year’s championship in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, but was out of eligibility during the 2013 indoor season – and UK’s group of throwers, which features two returning outdoor All-Americans in the form of defending SEC Discus Champion Andrew Evans and 2012 All-American javelin thrower Raymond Dykstra.Maybe the biggest goal for Kentucky this week is to show the rest of the conference that this team is ready to take the next step toward being elite again.”I’d definitely like to repeat and our team is looking pretty good and now that we have Luis back for outdoors and a couple of the throwers, we are definitely trying to be in the top half of the conference and just change the mold of Kentucky track and field,” Hillenbrand said.Changing the mold of the program is well under way, as evidenced by success of Hillenbrand and Canterna. This weekend will be a major measuring stick for just how much the new mold is beginning to take shape