Three Lions, sophomores Kyle Merber, Sharay Hale, and Monique Roberts, will head to Fayetteville, Arkansas this weekend for the 2010 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. They represent not only Columbia, but the entirety of the Ivy League as the sole qualifiers from the Heptagonal conference to the meet.
Kyle Merber leads the contingent after his Ivy record-setting 3:58.52 mile at last Friday’s Columbia-hosted Last Chance Meet, a time that places him 9th in the NCAA overall. It will be his first national championships—cross country, indoor, or outdoors—but expectations are high, as they should well be, as Merber has progressed considerably in each of his two performances at the distance this season.
“For the first time [at NCAAs] the goal is to get used to it,” said track and field head coach Willy Wood. “The goal for anyone would be to be All-American, but Kyle’s confident and mature enough to look beyond that, to finish much higher.”
Merber will face the likes of New Mexico senior Lee Emanuel, whose 3:57.62 leads the nation entering the meet, as well as Mac Fleet, A.J. Acosta, and Andrew Wheating. All three are from the University of Oregon, a perenial powerhouse and reigning meet champion.
Sharay Hale’s season has been record-filled, with new school and Ivy marks set at 200m and the 4x400m relay, and a school and second all-time Ivy 53.09 open 400m. The latter, Hale’s specialty, is the distance at which she’ll compete at NCAAs. Although this will be her first experience on the national stage indoors, Hale is not unfamiliar with the big dance—she took 9th at last year’s outdoor championships.
“Sharay is definitely ready for this weekend,” said Wood. “She’s so strong right now, ready to do something really big.”
After just missing the 400m finals outdoors, Hale is definitely hungry for her second shot. She’s currently situated at 11th overall and will face junior Joanna Atkins of Auburn, national champion at the distance outdoors, and Texas A&M’s Jessica Beard, current nation leader with her 51.15, and runner-up outdoors.
Monique Roberts’s 1.82m high jump from the NYRR Saturday Night at the Armory II back on Jan. 30 has held, and currently ranks 13th in the NCAA. Although she’s failed to better the height in subsequent outings, the national meet is a unique venue, surely one that will lend itself to outstanding performances. She’ll hope to improve upon that mark, and crack the seemingly elusive 6-foot barrier.
Competition gets underway Friday, March 12, at 10 a.m. and will close with the men’s 1600m relay Saturday at 8:40 p.m.
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