By Steve Holt, Sports Writer
Friday marks day one of two for the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships, taking place at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center in Boston. The Wildcat men’s team will go for its fifth straight indoor title, while the women’s team will try to break a five-year title drought.
But head coach Don Hood has said all season that his teams would reach their peak performance at the outdoor national meet in May, and that the indoor season would be treated as a time for training.
“We’re just not going to sell the farm for indoor,” Hood said. “If we win, that’s great. If we don’t, we’ve got outdoor to look forward to.”
The women’s team looks to be one of the strongest and deepest in recent years, but it will need to outperform 2005 outdoor national champion Lincoln University if it is to win its first title since 2000. The Wildcat women will be led by four athletes who are running two events each: sophomore Shawna-Kaye Thompson and freshman Kim Prather in the 60-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash; and Trina Cox and Olha Kryv’yak in the mile and 5,000-meter run.
Hood said he believes these athletes, especially Prather and Thompson, will need to perform at their best if ACU is to have a shot at a national championship.
“On the women’s side, Lincoln has great depth in the sprints. For us to win, we have to break up their top three,” Hood said. “If we can jump in there and get 8 of those and knock them down three or four points, we have a chance.”
ACU’s distance duo – Cox and Kryv’yak – will also need to run to win, Hood said.
“We can’t win the championship with a bunch of seventh-place finishes,” Hood said.
ACU’s best hopes for automatic team points lie in its 4×400-meter and distance medley relay teams, and junior Angie Aguilar.
Aguilar goes into Saturday’s pole vault with the second-best height – 12 feet, 10.5 inches – in Division II. A big vault from Aguilar on Saturday would translate into big points for the Wildcat women, who have fewer field event athletes competing than past years.
The 4×400-meter relay team will get its shot at glory in the final event of the meet late Saturday afternoon. The squad, comprised of seniors Brooklyn and Jessica Hunt, freshman Azraa Rounds and Prather, goes into the competition with the third-best time in the nation. Perhaps the biggest surprise on the women’s side this season has been the distance medley relay team – made up of Kryv’yak, Brooklyn Hunt, Vanessa Whittle and Cox – which ran a school record of 11:49.56 earlier this season.
The men’s team qualified fewer athletes than recent seasons, but Hood still believes they are the favorites to take home the hardware.
“I think we still should win it with what we have,” Hood said of his men’s team.
The men will have to overcome perennial favorites St. Augustine’s and Adams State (Colo.), however, if it is to pick up its 14th indoor national title.
The Wildcat men will pick up all-but automatic points from sophomore sensation Nicodemus Naimadu, who will run in both the mile and the 5,000-meter run, an event in which he set an indoor school record of 13:42.29 earlier this season. Naimadu could surprise the competition in the men’s mile as well, potentially posting a time down near four minutes.
ACU’s jumpers will look to continue their winning ways as well. Junior Vladyslav Gorbenko will be a favorite to take away a title in the triple jump, an event in which he has the second-best mark in the nation entering the national meet. Teammate Yevgen Pashchenko, a senior, has the third-best mark in the event. Pashchenko also will compete in the long jump.
Along with the long jump, the men’s distance medley relay will take place on Friday. Hood said the relay team – comprised of Montez Pride, Naimadu, David Chirchir and Philip Birgen – likely will run a better time than it did earlier this season, and that he should know after Friday’s final events whether the Wildcat men have a shot at winning the national championship.
“If we come out of those events with a couple of good finishes, we should have a good chance to win,” Hood said. “If we do poorly on Friday, I’d say we’re in trouble.”
The 2006 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships will begin Friday at noon with assorted field events, and running events will begin at 5 p.m. and run concurrently all evening. All events taking place Saturday will be final events, beginning with field events at 10 a.m. and running events at 3 p.m.
