UK Eager to Host, Compete in NCAA Prelims
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With the outdoor season reaching its crescendo, this is when the meets really start to matter.
First come the East Preliminary Championships and later nationals, when both team and individual NCAA champions will be crowned. It’s a routine that has become familiar for Kentucky track and field in recent years with Edrick Floréal leading nationally relevant squads, but this year offers a wrinkle.
The first step of this season’s NCAA journey will be taken at home for the Wildcats. UK is hosting the NCAA Division I Track and Field East Preliminary Championships this week.
The magnitude of the change has sunk in quickly this week for the Cats, who have watched their home track – the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex – be transformed.
“This track looks totally different,” UK’s Sha’Keela Saunders said. “It looks like we’re at a national-caliber track home right now. It doesn’t look like we’re just at UK. We’re at the UK this time.”
The meet will serve as the qualifying round ahead of next month’s national-championship meet in Oregon. Twelve athletes from the two prelim sites will qualify for nationals, with hundreds of athletes from dozens of schools competing for that right Thursday through Sunday.
UK has 44 total entries, with 24 competing for the seventh-ranked UK women’s team and 20 for the men’s team.
“You can tell the difference in practice this week,” Floréal said. “They just walked out here today and they see the track is set up to host and everybody’s attitude and mood changed quickly. It’s kind of a good sense of pride to see your facility transform into a world-class facility.”
UK bid for the right to host the event both to showcase its state-of-the-art facility and to create a home-track advantage for its athletes.
“It’s a huge advantage,” Saunders said. “The crowd here is amazing. If you’ve ever been to our home meet, the Kentucky Invite, it’s just amazing. And the Big Blue Nation, the fans are amazing. They know how to come and they know how to put on a show.”
With that crowd also comes a new variable with which to contend. What the Cats can’t let happen is for that extra motivation to turn into crippling pressure.
“Sometimes that can backfire,” Floréal said. “It could be extra pressure that they put on themselves. ‘I have to do well because everybody’s here watching and all my friends and my athletic director’s watching me.’ That extra pressure sometimes backfires on you.”
Saunders understands pressure.
The long jumper won the indoor national championship this season, but failed to even qualify for outdoor nationals a year ago. Her event is one that provides for only three attempts and the fouls she committed last year kept her from going for gold.
“Sometimes it’s very hard,” Saunders said. “… You just have to make sure you do what you’re used to doing and then once you get one in and you’re safe, then you go for the win.”
Saunders and every other athlete in Lexington this week will be contending with the dilemma that the preliminary round causes. On one hand, they want to put their best feet forward competing with some of the best athletes anywhere. On the other, they only have to finish in the top 12 to get where they really want to go.
“You’re just trying to qualify for the NCAAs, so sometimes the athletes get caught up and try to do huge things,” Floréal said. “You just gotta be top 12.”
All those elite athletes vying for a limited amount of spots makes for some good viewing, says Floreal.
“I would advise anyone that has any interest in sports or just supporting young people or supporting Kentucky track or Kentucky athletes in general, you should really be out here supporting these young people and giving them a chance to show what they’ve been working on and their talents,” Floréal said. “I’m hoping that the Kentucky faithful, the Big Blue Nation, shows up and shows Kentucky track and field some love.”
