The Bobcats track and field team is always hoping to get enough distance between themselves and the rest of the event field.
This weekend, however, the field section faces another kind of distance as they travel to the Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C., while part of the distance team competes in Palo Alto, Calif., at the Stanford invitational.
“We sent anybody who has the potential to qualify for the first round of the NCAA championship to California,” Ohio coach Clay Calkins said.
Distance runners Morgan Reichert, Juli Accurso, Melissa Thompson and Kayla Scott all get the chance to escape Ohio’s cold spring by competing 2459 miles further West against the nation’s best.
The quadruple will face tough competition in a meet with over 3,300 athletes – including several Olympic Trial qualifiers and Olympic medalists – from more than 100 colleges.
“(The organizers) will seed them in the right races,” Calkins said. “There will be good races. The goal is to qualify them for the NCAA championship.”
After setting a new program record in the 5000-meters at the Wake Forrest Open two weekends ago, Accurso will double the distance to take on the 10000-meter for the first time this season.
Together with Reichert, she will join a competition that will feature Kara Goucher, a 2007 world champion at 10,000-meters, and Oregon’s Jordan Hasay who won gold at the Pan American Junior Championships in the 1500 meter race in 2009.
Thompson will begin her outdoor campaign in the 5000-meters and hoping to carry over her success from the indoor season, as she ran a new Ohio record in the mile in a time of 4:48.22 minutes.
The junior faces a competition against 136 other athletes, including former Iowa State University athlete Lisa Uhl, who was a four-time NCAA champion at the 10,000-meters distance.
Running the 3000-meter steeplechase, Scott will not circle the track as many times as her teammates but still faces the same kind of competition – three of last year’s NCAA finalists in the event are back.
Although Calkins admitted that the time change can be a negative factor on the race performance, he sees no reason to worry.
“(The time change) is one of the reasons we left Wednesday,” he said. “It gives us some time to acclimate. So far they have done a pretty good job of adjusting to it.”
Competing on the other coast of the United States will be the remainder of the team to take on the Winthrop Invitational.
“It’s a competitive meet with prelims and finals in all events,” Calkins said. “The goal is definitely to get them into the finals.”
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