Women's Track & Field | 2/27/2015 9:41:00 AM
FEB. 27-28 at RMAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: LIVE UPDATES | LIVE VIDEO (SATURDAY 12-4 p.m.)
GUNNISON, Colo. – The fourth-ranked New Mexico Highlands track and field team look to capture its first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship this weekend (Feb. 27-28) at Western State in Gunnison, Colorado. Live results will be
here while live video (12-4 p.m. on Saturday) will be located
here. For the championship web site, click
here. The meet kicks off Friday with the women's 60 meter hurdles.
"If you don't think you can win a championship, why are you really in it?" head coach
Bob DeVries asked. "The goal has always been to win an RMAC championship and get athletes into the national meet. This is the year when things come together as we have a very good group."
Even though the Cowgirls are the highest ranked team in the RMAC, it will be tough sledding. The national rankings are based on NCAA national qualifiers and are no indication how a team with fare in the conference meet. In addition, Adams State has captured 23-of-25 contested RMAC indoor titles, including the last 13.
"We are still the underdog as Adams State is probably the favorite. Chadron has a very strong team. We have our national champions with Shanice and Salcia, but what will be critical is the team championship," DeVries explained. "It is not an individual championship. We will use people all over the track, all over the field to see if people can step up and grab those fifth places, those eighth places. We have all seen championships won by a point and even less.
"No one in this conference will step aside and hand us anything. Adams State has a tremendous program and Chadron State has built a program over the years and is starting to really come together with their athletes. Other teams concentrate on their events which they have become good. It is a very strong conference and we just want to be in the mix. If it comes down to the 4x400 relay, there is nothing more exciting than it coming down to the last event and seeing the crowd go crazy." DeVries added.
We all know about senior
Salcia Slack leading the nation in the pentathlon (4038 points) and sophomore
Shanice McPherson in the long jump (6.49 meters), but it takes a team to win a title. To maximize as many points as possible, athletes are going to be placed in numerous different events. For instance, senior
Charmaine DeLotch will try her hand in the high jumps. Junior
Nacia Johnson will be added to the shot put. Even Slack wanted to run the 400 as every point counts in a meet that Coach DeVries believes will be down to the wire.
"We're going to try and do different things with our athletes and try to score points," DeVries said. "Last year, the coach at Western State commented 'Man, you use your kids everywhere.' Our kids want to do it. Western did the same thing outdoors and they almost won a championship. We approach it as a team championship. I think we can do it, but everyone has to contribute.
"Other coaches kid me about tiring out my athletes in a joking manner, but the truth is we use our athletes all over the place. We do not have our athletes do things they don't want to do. I have had athletes approach me and go 'coach, put me in this event.' If somebody thinks they can score points and it does not look outside the realm of possibility, I will put them in there and try to get as many points as I can," DeVries added.
While many teams rely on the conference championships and last chance meets to qualify for the NCAAs, coach DeVries takes a different approach.
"We try to qualify before the conference meet. We view the conference meet as a championship meet and not a qualifying meet," DeVries stated. "Now, we have qualified people before out of the conference meet and we would like to see Destiny get a few more points in the pentathlon and Stefania move up in the 200. We have qualified our 4x400 out of conference before, but we approach this meet as we want to get as many points as we can by putting people in those positions."
Coach DeVries feels this approach gives his athletes freedom to perform their best and not worry about national marks.
"I feel trying to get our athletes qualified ahead of time affords them a degree of freedom. We talk about relaxing and letting the speed come out. The truth is, athletes perform a little bit better when they are relaxed. There is relaxiation in not having to achieve a specific mark. The pressure is to score points so the pressure is there, but placed on a different emphasis. We have high expectations and I know our athletes have high expectations of themselves."
What would winning a title mean to this school and to Coach DeVries himself? As an athlete and now a longtime coach in the conference, it would mean the world.
"I am looking forward to it because it will be a great competition. I always say the RMAC is one of the great DII conference in the nations and people look at to see what happened in the conference over the weekend. I feel lucky to be a part of it. I have great respect for the teams and athletes and coaches who are in this conference," DeVries said.
The most exciting event of the weekend looks to be the long jump as 5-of-8 of the top marks in the country in NCAA Division II resides right here in the RMAC. Eight athletes will be an All-American in the event at nationals, and the conference claims all three medal positions.
"With what is going on in this conference in the long jump, I am taking credit," DeVries said. "When I started, the long jump and the triple jump were weak events in this conference. When Angella Graham, a 10-time All-American when we just started really getting this going, when she qualified for nationals in the long jump, she jumped 5.92. It was a school record for the longest time. It was an unheard of mark and people's eyes got wide. I remember her doing that at the indoor conference meet and people were like 'wow.' Now, I think that mark would be fourth in the conference."
And everyone wants to win, but the athletes support each other event in and out. Esspecially in the field events.
"With the RMAC long jump basically a preview of nationals, I think it will give our athletes a degree of comfort to be in an event against against athletes they have competed against all year long," DeVries explained. "Despite being from different teams, the long jumpers are generally a small, tight-knit community. They watch each other, cheering for one another and clap when they are on the runway. It will be fun to go to the national meet and for people to say 'wow, they are from the same conference."
NCAA Qualifiers from Highlands The following is a list of the athletes who have either provisionally (+) or automatically (*+) qualified for the NCAA championships. The number is the ranking in the country as approximately the top-20 in each event will be invited to the NCAA championships.
| 60m Dash |
| 200m Dash |
| 60m High Hurdles |
| 4 x 400m Relay |
| Long Jump |
| Triple Jump |
| Shot Put |
| Indoor Pentathlon |
