Pressure mounts for athletes as NCAA track championship nears
Texas Tech shot putter Ifeatu Okafor moved up from No. 12 in the national rankings to No. 2 when she threw a personal record two weeks ago at the Big 12 Conference track and field championships.
Ten years ago, that performance would have earned the Tech sophomore a trip to the NCAA outdoor meet.
Instead, Okafor will have to perform at a high level again this weekend at the NCAA West Preliminary at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
"There's a lot of pressure, because anything can happen," Okafor said last week. "The rankings don't mean as much because there's always going to be people who don't do as well as they're expected to do and athletes who do more than they're expected to do. Anything can happen."
The NCAA outdoor championships are June 8-11 in Des Moines, Iowa. In essence, though, the national meet starts today through Saturday with the NCAA West Preliminary hosted by Oregon and the NCAA East Preliminary in Bloomington, Ind.
"It's a meet that none of us like," Tech coach Wes Kittley said. "It's a meet that all of us have to do. You've got to come out of this round to get to the next one."
Or, as Okafor put it, "It means a lot, because it'd be kind of sad if I'm ranked No. 2 in the nation going into regionals and I didn't make it. (Qualifying for the national meet) would mean all my hard work is about to pay off."
The two sites will host first and quarterfinal competition rounds, whittling the number of athletes in each event from 96 (48 in the East, 48 in the West) to the 24 that advance to Des Moines. The regional meets were added in 2003.
The Tech men have athletes ranked sixth in the nation or higher in six events, giving the Red Raiders a good chance to be a player at the NCAA outdoor meet. But they all have to qualify first.
Tech stars Omo Osaghae in the 110-meter hurdles, Bryce Brown and Jamele Mason in the 400-meter hurdles, Gil Roberts in the 400, Bryce Lamb in the long jump and Julian Wruck in the discus can't have a bad day.
"If you're really good, you just want to try to maintain and get through it," Kittley said, "but if you're average or the 20th-ranked kid, you're going full speed and trying to run your personal best the whole year. That's what makes it tough on good people - you've got those (lower-ranked) people giving it their very best, so you can't just take it for granted.
"It's kind of like a cinderella team in basketball giving everything they've got in the first round against a Duke or somebody."
Wruck, a sophomore from Australia, is ranked No. 1 in the nation in the men's discus. At last year's West Preliminary in Austin, he had the best throw at either of the two regional sites, then went on to finish third at the NCAA Outdoor meet, which was in Eugene.
Not surprisingly, Wruck said he feels less pressure for this meet than some athletes might.
"I throw the best when I'm relaxed, when I feel really comfortable," he said. "I don't want to get super worked up. I'm feeling relaxed, which is what I need to feel."
The Tech contingent - 13 women, 12 men - traveled to Oregon on Tuesday. Several Red Raiders will have two rounds of competition. Wruck will have only one, and that doesn't come until Saturday afternoon.
He'll have plenty of time to kill.
"If it's the last event, the last thing you want to do is over-think it," he said. "You want to talk to people, relax, kind of think about what you're going to do."
The Tech men are ranked No. 5 in the nation and the Tech women No. 18, though two weeks ago they finished fifth and eighth, respectively, at the Big 12 meet hosted by Oklahoma. Kittley said he backed off putting too much emphasis on the conference meet, knowing the importance of this weekend.
"This is a tough meet," Kittley said. "It's one of the reasons I didn't want to kill people. I think you can only get up for this type of competition a couple of times and doing three in a row (conference, West Preliminary, NCAA outdoor) I thought would be tough to do. I tried to come out of Big 12 where we didn't deplete everybody emotionally and physically to prepare for this."
TECH ATHLETES' SCHEDULE
West regional rankings in parentheses
Each event is first round unless otherwise noted
Today
MEN
Long jump: Bryce Lamb (6), 2 p.m. Pole vault: Kyal Meyers (11), 5:45 p.m. 400-meter hurdles: Bryce Brown (2), Jamele Mason (4), 5:55 p.m. 400 meters: Gil Roberts (5), 8:10 p.m.
WOMEN
Shot put: Ifeatu Okafor (2), Kelly Closse (12), 3:45 p.m. 400 meters: Candace Jackson (10), Taylor Evans (15), 7:50 p.m. 800 meters: Caroline Jepleting (12), Devin Bailey (21), 8:30 p.m.
Friday
MEN
100-meter hurdles: Omo Osaghae (1), Brandon Tucker (10), Shane Brathwaite (11), 5 p.m. 3,000-meter steeplechase quarterfinals: Gilbert Limo (22), 9:20 p.m.
Also, quarterfinals for athletes in 400 meters and 400-meter hurdles.
WOMEN
100-meter hurdles: Kelsey Lloyd (8), Katie Grimes (12), Jamie Simanek (32), 5 p.m. Pole vault: Shade Weygandt (2), 6 p.m.
Also, quarterfinals for athletes in 400 meters and 800 meters.
Saturday
MEN
Triple jump: Bryce Lamb (39), 2:30 p.m. Discus: Julian Wruck (1), 5:30 p.m. 1,600-meter relay quarterfinals: Bryce Brown, Shane Brathwaite, Jamele Mason, Gil Roberts, alternate Zach Plinario (4), 6:45 p.m.
Also, quarterfinals for athletes in 110-meter hurdles.
WOMEN
Discus: Ifeatu Okafor (11), Kelly Closse (14), noon. 400-meter relay quarterfinals: Erica Alexander, Terra Evans, Candace Jackson, Taylor Evans (8), 3 p.m. 1,600-meter relay quarterfinals: Meshawn Graham, Taylor Evans, Candace Jackson, Kelsey Lloyd (8), 6:25 p.m.
Also, quarterfinals for athletes in 100-meter hurdles.
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