Collegiate runners, jumpers and throwers from across the nation have been working all season long just to get to this point – the NCAA Regional Championships.
Unlike other sports where each regular season match or game is of great consequence, track and field athletes must just post one time or distance better than the qualifying mark to earn a spot at the regionals.
For redshirt freshman John Martinez, this mark was 9:07. Martinez competes in the steeplechase, a 3,000-meter run.
Martinez, who posted four qualifying times in this event with a top time of 8:52, said all the pressure falls on this one weekend because it is the only chance for athletes to reach the national championships.
“It will definitely be a lot more competitive than any other race I’ve run this year,” Martinez said.
“There is a lot more pressure because everyone is fighting for a spot to go to nationals, to go to the NCAA Championship. Only the top five go automatically and then after that it’s up to at-large bids.”
There are four regional sites with N.C. State in the east regional. The Wolfpack had 21 athletes qualify for the event in Gainesville, Fla.
Senior Mitchell Pope leads the Pack as he earned the No. 1 seed in the shot put competition. Pope is coming off a runner-up performance at the national championships in 2006, and a title in the ACC Championships earlier this season.
State’s strength lies with its distance runners, however. The men’s team qualified two runners for the 1,500 meters, two runners for the 5,000 meters and four runners, including Martinez, for the 3,000-meter steeplechase. For the women’s squad, senior Julia Lucas currently has the second best time in the east region for the 5,000 meters.
While State has many athletes with top-five times, this is no guarantee of a trip to nationals, according to senior Laila Thomas, a high jumper.
“Anything can happen. You never really know going in,” Thomas said.
“It all depends on how everybody else does, how you do. I could clear two heights and make it, I could clear one height and make it – it all depends on how everybody else does. Personally, I think I have a good chance of going.”
The championships will be held this Friday and Saturday lasting throughout the day. The team will leave for Gainesville, Fla., on Thursday morning and will participate in light warm-ups before the event.
With the entire season riding on this weekend, Thomas said now is the time to step up.
“This is what everybody trains for,” Thomas said.
“This is the time where it is the most intense. I mean you try to be as ready as you can, but everybody is coming out there to win, to be top five and go to nationals, so this is the time when you have to give it all you got.”
