With none of the big names in track and field competing for ACU in the Texas Tech Open last weekend, Nick Jones’ first place finish in shot-put served as the highlight for the Wildcats.

Instead of being on ACU’s football team last fall as he had been in years past, Jones spent the off-season training for the shot-put in hopes that the extra work would improve his distance.

“When you play football, you tear your body down week after week,” Jones said. “This year, I went through the full track off-season and built my body up instead of tearing it down, and the difference has shown.”

Jones has never thrown better than he did last weekend, just the first week of the season, throwing exactly 57 feet – by far, good enough for the win. Automatic qualification for the NCAA Indoor National Championship is 58 feet 8 inches. Jones’ mark provisionally qualifies him, but he would like to improve that and get the automatic bid as quickly as possible.

Jones already is a two-time National Champion in the discus for the Wildcats, but he  said he would love to get another ring in the shot-put. In 2009, Jones won the Lone Star Conference title in both shot-put and discus.

The only other provisional qualifier in last weekend’s meet for the ‘Cats was Kevin Johnson, who finished sixth in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.7 seconds.

All of the track and field Wildcats will get another chance to qualify for the indoor championships this weekend, when they travel back to Lubbock for the Texas Tech Invitational.

“I feel like we have our best chance this year to win a National Championship since 2008,” Jones said. “We have a great core of guys with Ramon Sparks, Desmond Jackson, Tyler Fleet and Amos Sang.”