NCAA Indoor Championships Await McNeill, Villarreal
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The time has finally arrived for seniors David McNeill and Javier Villarreal of the Northern Arizona track and field team to vie for a national championship. The two are set to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., Friday and Saturday.
Villarreal will be the first Lumberjack to compete as the shot put preliminary and final rounds are set to begin at 2:45 p.m. CST. McNeill will take to the track at 8:00 p.m. for the 5,000-meter run Friday evening, and 7:55 p.m. Saturday night for the 3,000-meter run.
This is the first time the Lumberjacks have sent more then one individual to the indoor championships since Johanna Nilsson, Britney Rogers and Monique Young represented NAU back in 2006.
Accompanying the duo will be Interim Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Eric Heins and throws coach Mohamad Saatara.
This is the second trip McNeill has made to the indoor championships. The Australian native finished eighth in the 3k back in 2008, but Heins knows a lot has changed from two years ago.
"The biggest difference from two years ago until now is that David has had consistent training since he has been here, he has built up some momentum and has confidence in what he is doing," Heins said. "Going into the championships this year, he is going there with a goal in mind as opposed to two years ago when he went there just to see what he could do since he was coming off of an injury."
Villarreal is just the second NAU thrower to make it to the indoor championships since Karim Chester earned All-American honors in the weight throw in 2005. Saatara is looking forward to see how the competition plays out because of how close everyone's marks are.
"The competition is pretty wide open because of the differential in all the guys from 15th all the way to 2nd is only about three feet," Saatara said. "It is going to be really exciting to see what happens. He has been doing great in his training and mentally he is focused on what he needs to do. It is a big deal for him to make it because historically we don't have many shot putters make it to indoor nationals."
How they got there...
McNeill makes his way to Fayetteville owning the nation's top times in both the 3,000 (7:47.52) and 5,000-meter runs (13:39.32).
He recorded the 3k time at the Husky Classic on the campus of the University of Washington back on Feb. 13. Along with winning his heat, McNeill also broke the course record at the Dempsey Indoor facility set last year by Oklahoma State's German Fernandez (7:47.97).
Recording his national-leading 5k time was a bit different for McNeill. He decided to run the race at the NAU Tune Up, the last regular-season race held at the Skydome. Eyeing an automatic qualifying time, McNeill came up with the top mark in the country by just under five seconds.
Villarreal punched has ticket to Arkansas when he threw an NAU indoor record 60-10.5 at the Lumberjack Invitational on Jan. 16. The four-time Big Sky shot put champion had to wait until Monday night to find out if he would be included in the field. His personal-best mark tied him with Penn State's Blake Eaton, and the two were the last to be included in the field of 15.
Sizing up the competition...
Friday night's 5k championship race will feature a rematch of sorts for McNeill. Liberty's Sam Chelanga comes into the event ranked second. The two competed against each other at the 2009 Cross Country National Championships, with Chelanga walking away as the national champion in a record-setting time. The race also features top-sophomores Colby Lowe from Oklahoma State and 2009 Pre-Nationals champion Luke Puskedra from Oregon.
The 3k on Saturday night features a deep field as well. The competition looks to be stiff as less then 10 seconds separates the entire group. A plethora of seniors including, Wisconsin's Craig Miller, New Mexico's Lee Emanuel, Arizona State's Brandon Burke and Arkansas's Dorian Ulrey all look to top McNeill and finish their careers as national champions.
McNeill could join the elite company of David Kimani (Alabama), Alistair Cragg (Arkansas) and Galen Rupp (Oregon) as the only men to win both the 3k and 5k national titles in the same weekend.
The shot put field will see Villarreal compete against the nation's best, including 2009 National Champion Ryan Whiting from Arizona State, who comes into the event with a national-leading mark of 21.52m (70-7). The distance separating second place down to No. 15 is less then a meter. Villarreal is one of eight seniors in the championship flight.
This is the second time Villarreal has competed at the national level in the past two seasons. The Eloy, Ariz., native was one of six Lumberjacks who earned a spot at the outdoor championships last season in Fayetteville. He went on to finish 21st in the event.
How to watch...
Live Streaming Coverage from NCAA.com
ESPN360.com will stream the championships LIVE beginning at 8 p.m. CST on Fri., March 12 and 6:10 p.m. CST on Sat., March 13. To access the live stream, visit www.ESPN360.com. ArkansasRazorbacks.com will stream supplemental coverage as available when ESPN360.com is not live. Live results can be found at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
