2014 NCCAA Track and Field National Meet Info

By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – Having swept a pair of national championships on the indoor track two months ago, the Shorter track team will be vying to do the same fete when the National Christian College Athletic Association Track and Field National Championship makes its debut at Barron Stadium on Thursday.

The Hawks and Lady Hawks, however, clearly understand that although they will be competing on their home surface, they must maintain their focus on the process that has led to a growing list of national crowns.

"It took us several years to get over the hump to learn how to win a national championship," said Shorter Director of Track Scott Byrd, who has seen the Hawks and Lady Hawks produce six national titles in the past three years. "One of the hardest things is to get the athletes to understand it's a process.

"To win it," the coach said, "you need the mental toughness and the focus to stay on the right path."

 This year's team clearly has been on the right path this season, giving Shorter the NCCAA indoor championship sweep in February and two weeks ago turned in a solid performance at the Peach Belt Conference Championships at Barron when the Lady Hawks claimed runner-up honors and the Hawks powered their way to the PBC crown, the university's first-ever NCAA Division II conference championship.

"It's a solid conference and what we did in the PBC meet will help us this week," Byrd said.

Yet for three days, Shorter will be pushed to the limit as the NCCAA outdoor finale includes some of the top programs from across the nation and from Canada – more than 800 athletes will convene in Rome – with the team that pulled off a sweep of the 2013 men's and women's titles leading the list of contenders: Azusa Pacific.

"They are good people. They don't mess around," Byrd said of the men and women of Azusa Pacific, which saw its football team win the NCCAA Victory Bowl at Barron last fall. "Nothing from them surprises me. You have to respect them, their staff and their program."

Last year, Shorter's first as an NCCAA competitor, the Lady Hawks finished second behind APU while the Hawks settled for an eighth place finish.

This time around, both are bound and determined to cap the year securing the rare double sweep with the Hawks seeking a second indoor-outdoor national title season in the program's history, the first coming in 2011 when the veterans on this year's squad stood alone on the NAIA championship podiums.

"The guys want to finish it out by winning both the indoor and the outdoor. They did it once before and feel they can do it again," said Byrd, noting that the Hawks and Lady Hawks have been blessed with a wealth of experience. "With the men and the women, that experience has really been a big difference.

"Coming off winning the indoor championships," he said, "I'm sure every team will be coming in here ready to run and run at their best against us.

"We have to go out and run like they've been doing all year to win. We can't afford any missteps."

One look at who Shorter has at the top of the NCCAA meet performance lists is an indicator of just how well the team has run this season.

Senior Kirk Wilson, who won the indoor 60 and 200 meters and ranks as one of the top sprinters in the entire NCAA classifications, enters the meet as the No. 1 runner in the 100 and 200; in the 400, Malik Fair, who is ranked No. 3 in the 200, is the top-rated while teammates Gregory Roachford, Jr. and Randall Dameron are No. 2 and 3, respectively; Jihad Ragge is No. 1 in the 800; the Hawks 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams are both at the top of their events; and Stefanos Koufidis, who turned in a second-place finish at the 120^th Penn Relays, heads up the field in the pole vault.

Speed is the main weapon of the Lady Hawks as well as Lakeisha Spikes is No. 1 in the 100 with Giselle Webb (No. 3) and Alexis Smith (No. 4) right on her heels; the 200 is loaded with Lady Hawks as Spikes, Ashley Ballard and Smith are the top three while Webb 5 is No. 5; Ayana Walker and Ballard and Nos. 1-2 in the 400; and like the men the women's 4x100 and 4x400 squads are No. 1.

The NCCAA meet opens at noon on Thursday with the start of the decathlon and pentathlon and at 4 p.m. the field events and running preliminaries – save for the 10,000 finals – will get the track up.

The two multi-events gets things start on Friday at 11 a.m., action in the field events begin at 1 p.m. and an opening ceremony will precede the start of the second day of running events that come out of the blocks at 5:30 p.m., including the finals of the 4x800.

The meet wraps up on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. with finals being decided in 26 events, with the men's 4x400 getting the gun at 4:30 in the final event.

Tickets are $5 for a one-day pass and a three-day ticket package is available Thursday for $12.

"We are truly blessed that Shorter and Rome is hosting the NCCAA championship," said Byrd. "The men and women who are coming here to compete represent some of the finest athletes from all over the country and Canada. It's truly unique."