For the Ohio men's and women's track and field teams, nearly everything that could go wrong during the 2004 season did.
Hurdler Byron Gibson transferred to Alabama before the year even began, three-time Mid-American Conference long jump champion Scott Mayle redshirted for the outdoor season and pole vaulter Boone Troyer pulled his hamstring just days after qualifying for this weekend's NCAA Mideast Regionals.
On top of that, following last year's larger-than-expected fields at the inaugural Regional meets, the NCAA increased nearly every qualifying mark.
As a result of these factors, only three Bobcats are traveling to Baton Rouge, La., one-third of the number who made the short trip to Columbus for last year's competition.
Last year was a bit watered down because they made some of the standards lower so more people could get into the meet
coach Clay Calkins said. They didn't want to have a national championship meet where there was too lean of a field. The standards are tougher this year. It's been a tougher row to hoe.
Despite only sending three athletes to the equivalent of track and field's postseason, the Bobcats who are traveling are among the region's best.
Hurdler Jericka Duncan is ranked 11th in the 400 hurdles at 59.39 seconds, while pole vaulter Boone Troyer is 16th in the vault at 16 feet, 5.25 inches, and sprinter/jumper Foli James is 21st in the 100-meter hurdles at 13.81 seconds. Each athlete is making his or her second trip to Regionals.
Regionals is such a different atmosphere and a different intensity that you just have to be ready James said. You have to be ready -that's what I learned last year.
James, who often competes in five events, will enter just the 100 hurdles this weekend, a welcome change to darting from event to event as she has for Ohio the last few seasons.
That will be real nice James said. The flip side to that will be I won't know what I'll do with myself because I'll only be doing one event
and it's not something I'm used to at all.
Duncan, who stands less than .40 seconds from breaking the school record for the 400 hurdles, also qualified for just one event. During the season, she also competed in the 100 hurdles and 400 relay.
It's going to be nice
Duncan said. It's going to be weird
but I think it's going to be nice just to be able to go
watch some of the events
warm up
do your thing
then watch some of the events afterward. That's something that I'm not used to doing. I'm used to warming up
on and off
