When the Kentucky track and field team gets ready to compete in the 2013 Outdoor Southeastern Conference Championships this weekend, the Wildcats will look very different from their conference counterparts. The blue and white uniforms, of course, will distinguish the Wildcats, but the real contrast won’t begin to show itself until competition begins.The SEC allows each university to bring 30 male and female student-athletes to compete at the conference championships. Instead of piling in 60 members from the UK track and field team and busing to Columbia, Mo., this week, first-year head coach Edrick Floreal chose to take a different approach.Floreal made the decision to send just 35 athletes, 18 males and 17 females, to compete at SECs. This might seem to put the Cats at an immediate disadvantage, but Floreal knows his team better than anyone else. He has a clear picture of what a UK track and field athlete looks like, and the Wildcats he’ll bring with him to Missouri have grown to fit that vision.The biggest difference he has seen in this group over the course of the year hasn’t necessarily been a boost in athletic ability or skill, but a change in their mentality.”I just think it’s been self-belief,” Floreal said. “They believe they actually belong and I actually heard it from some of the coaches in the SEC that the kids that we have now act like they belong in the SEC and they can be competitive. That was a goal for the kids to feel like they belong instead of just letting them participate in the event. “That’s kind of why we took a smaller group of people that actually feel comfortable competing at that level as opposed to taking a large group that might not be ready when it comes to competing at that level yet.”One of the meets this year that has stood out to Floreal on that front was the Kentuckiana Border Battle in mid-April, when UK teamed up with Louisville in a meet against Indiana and Notre Dame. UK and U of L ended up winning both the men’s and women’s meets but more importantly, Floreal saw belief and determination out of his athletes.Coaches from the three neighbor schools who were familiar with Kentucky and how the Wildcats compete were caught off guard by the Wildcats’ new sense of self-confidence.Creating that attitude has been one of Floreal’s main goals since he arrived in the Bluegrass. He hopes for a similar reaction from UK’s SEC brethren this weekend.”I’m hoping for a little shock factor for the rest of the conference to exceed their expectation,” Floreal said. “Not so much exceed their expectation in winning events but just from watching how hard our kids fight and how confident they are at that level more importantly than anything else. “It is one thing when you are used to seeing Kentucky on the back and now they are next to you being competitive. That’s what we are aiming for in every event. Whether somebody is fighting for next-to-last or fighting to make the final, I just want them to fight as hard as they can all the way to the finish.”What this week does for the Cats is give them an opportunity to compete at the highest level and gain experience for the 2014 SEC Championships, which will be held at the UK Track and Field Complex. Floreal is hoping that his athletes take this experience and develop some leadership for next year as well.Kentucky has a large recruiting class coming in next year, with 25 male and 12 female athletes set to arrive in Lexington for the 2013-14 season. With such a massive group of newcomers, UK needs some leaders to step up so the freshmen have an example to follow.”We just need to establish a group of leaders now so when the freshmen come they already know, ‘Hey these people have gotten it done, we need to learn from them on what it takes to compete in the SEC,’ ” Floreal said. “You don’t want the freshmen to come in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and completely lost. You want them to come in and feel like they can talk to the All-SEC members and All-Americans on the team and learn from them.”Another goal of Floreal’s is to improve on last year’s performance – eighth for the men, 12th for the women – and see if the Cats can crack the top half. With the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M this season, the Wildcats will need to place at least seventh to achieve Floreal’s goal.Last year junior Andrew Evans won the discus throw, while senior Luis Orta and sophomore Raymond Dykstra were runners-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and javelin throw, respectively. Floreal wouldn’t mind seeing a few more of his athletes up on the stage accepting awards this year.”We didn’t have an exceptionally good showing last year and the No. 1 thing is to improve on that,” Floreal said. “Anytime you can be in the top half of the SEC that’s a big accomplishment. We want to see some people in that top five and top three and see some people on the podium. We just want the kids to compete hard and be competitive so it should be fairly clear who are the stars and who are not.”