No. 8/8 Track and Field Readies for NCAA West Preliminaries

No. 8/8 Track and Field Readies for NCAA West Preliminaries

5/24/2022 3:41:00 PM | Track & Field

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            First-year Baylor track and field head coach Michael Ford prides himself on being calm, cool and collected, even in the most stressful situations. You know, never let 'em see you sweat.
            This week is different.
While Baylor has a school-record 43 entries for the NCAA Championship West Preliminary that begins Wednesday at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Ark., only the top 12 in each event advance to the NCAA Championships next month in Eugene, Ore.
            "We can't even talk about going to Eugene until we get through Arkansas," said Ford, whose men's and women's teams are both ranked eighth nationally going into the regional meet. "For me, it's just, 'Hey, let's do everything right.' If they do what they've been doing, they'll be fine. But, I think the stress level goes up a little bit more because you know this is it.
            "There's no Eugene if they don't do well in Fayetteville."
            And while you can mess up in a running event and "still probably recover from it," Ford said, the field events are unforgiving. There are no finals at this round, you get three attempts, and that's it.
            Freshmen Johnny Brackins and Chinecherem "Zaza" Prosper Nnamdi are ranked No. 1 in the West Region in the long jump and javelin throw, respectively, but they still have to perform at the West Preliminary to make it through to Eugene.
            Two weeks ago, at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, "Zaza" fouled on his first two attempts in the javelin before getting off a legal throw on his last attempt in the prelims. He got off one more legal throw and won a Big 12 title with a mark of 255 feet, 10 inches, that was more than 23 feet farther than his closest competitor.
            "When Zaza fouled his first two, we were like, 'Man, you've got to get a throw in. You don't have to throw far, but you've got to have enough to get to the final,''' Ford said. "But here, I don't want to wait until the third throw to get one in. I think the stress level goes up, more so in the field events."
            Despite winning a Big 12 title and being named Big 12 Men's Outstanding Freshman of the Year, "Zaza" called it "one of the worst competitions I've ever been to."
            "Just because it happened in conference doesn't mean it's going to happen again," he said. "This time around is regionals, and I need to be more careful. So, I'm going to try to take my first throw easy to qualify, then do what I want to do in the rest of the throws."
            While the objective is just to survive and advance, Nnamdi said he needs "to be the king" again. Virginia's Ethan Dabbs ascended back to the No. 1 spot in the NCAA rankings in the javelin with a mark of 272 feet at the ACC Championships, six feet farther than "Zaza" (266 feet).
            "That's how it works for me," he said. "It is my motivation, not settling for second, always striving to be in the best position. Even though I may be among the pro athletes that throw way better than me, I might do something really crazy to scare them out, to be like, 'Oh, this person is an opponent, not just a little bit.' That is just me."
            With 31 individuals and a total of 43 entries, Ford is hoping to take a contingent of at least 20 student-athletes to Eugene. That includes the men's and women's 4x100 and 4x400 relays, which all rank in the top eight in the region.
            The men's 4x400 relay is missing senior Howard Fields III, who's slowed by a hamstring injury. But, they have a large relay pool with Dillon Bedell, Matthew Moorer, Hasani Barr and 400-meter hurdlers Nathan Ezekiel and Jayson Baldridge. Running without Fields at the Big 12 meet, Barr, Moorer, Baldridge and Bedell won a conference title in 3:02.73.
            "Hopefully, we'll get (Fields) back for nationals, but I think the guys got a lot of confidence last week," Ford said. "They've run pretty well without him at the Big 12 meet and at the Michael Johnson meet. So, I don't think we'll skip a beat. We've just got to go on. The next man steps up, and you go from there."
            On the women's side, Aaliyah Miller (800 meters) and Ackera Nugent (100-meter hurdles) are ranked second in the West Region, while sophomore Gontse Morake is fourth in the 400 hurdles with a school-record time of 56.19.
            "My ultimate goal for nationals is to break the school record again," Morake said, "because it would be a pretty fast time, and that will place me well in the rankings back home. Right now, I think I'm placed fourth (in South Africa)."
            After sitting out last year with injuries and "a lot of complications," Morake has more than lived up to expectations after setting South Africa Under-18 national records in the triple jump and 400 hurdles.
            "We knew her talent level coming in," Ford said. "I guess her performances haven't really shocked me, because I just knew the talent level and I've watched her practice every day. So, I kind of know where she's at. People always say the sky's the limit for her. For me, I think every race that she has is building more confidence in her."
            Having not run in almost two years, Morake said she was not very confident at the start of the season. But, when she opened up with a 58.53 at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, "that gave me a little bit of confidence."
            Rooming with fellow sophomores Nugent and Kavia Francis, Morake has a certain standard to live up to. Nugent won an NCAA indoor title last year in the 60-meter hurdles and also earned outdoor All-American honors with a third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, while Francis was a relay All-American in the indoor 4x400 and outdoor 4x100.
            "It was very hard to sit and watch, because both of my teammates were really amazing," Morake said. "It's kind of difficult for all of us to come in as freshman – they're doing well, and I'm just here not doing anything. I thought they might just tell me, 'You know what, go home, because why are you here not doing anything for us?' I'm just thankful that they were patient with us, and the training team helped me through it mentally and physically."
            The NCAA West Preliminary begins Wednesday with men's running events and the hammer, javelin, long jump, shot put and pole vault. First round for the women will start at 6 p.m. Thursday with the 100 hurdles.

WACO, Texas – Baylor track and field is set to compete at the west preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championships, beginning Wednesday, May 24, at the Jack McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas.

On Thursday, the NCAA announced that a program-record 43 entries belonged to the Bears for the meet, breaking the previous record of 36 set in 2010.

Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi (javelin throw), Johnny Brackins (long jump) and Nathaniel Ezekiel (400mH) all enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the region, followed by 19 Bears in the top-12.

Student-athletes that finish the quarterfinal rounds in the top-12 advance to the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore, held June 8-11.

The meet will be streamed on SEC Network +. A meet schedule, meet information and live results are also available online.

For the latest news on the Baylor track and field team all season long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorTrack.

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