If there is any justice in college track and field, Arizona junior Justice Summerset will soar into the air on Saturday, clear the high jump bar at a personal-best height and catapult into the NCAA indoor championships. It won’t be easy, but as UA coach Fred Harvey says, it’s very possible.
Arizona’s indoor men’s and women’s teams head into the championships of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on Friday and Saturday at the University of Washington.
The meet serves as the indoor track version of the Pac-12 championships, but it is even more competitive with the addition of 10 other Western teams.
Harvey has set two goals for his teams: to place as high as possible in the team standings and to qualify more of his athletes for the NCAA indoor championships.
Summerset figures to be a prominent factor in reaching both goals. The Mountain View High School grad is tied for second in the MPSF with a jump of 7 feet 1½ inches. But he ranks only 24th nationally and must improve in the standings to the top 16 to qualify for the NCAA indoor championships on March 8-9. Summerset’s lifetime best is 7-3, and with an excellent crop of jumpers nationwide, he’d have to soar even higher to qualify.
“Justice is jumping out of this world at almost every competition,” Harvey said. “But his timing has been just a little off, and he is knocking down the bar with his heel or just scraping it with his body.”
Among the women high jumpers, junior transfer Lillian Lowe is tied for ninth place in the NCAA listings with a leap of 5-11½. She will attempt to improve her mark at the meet to assure her NCAA qualification.
Harvey is hoping that junior Karla Teran can improve on her season best of 5-10 to also qualify.
At this point, only two Wildcats, both men, are assured of NCAA qualification. Sophomore Jordan Geist ranks second in the shot put and junior Carlos Villarreal is No. 3 in the mile.
Harvey is hopeful that both his men’s and women’s 4x400-meter relay teams can make substantial improvement in their races to make it to the NCAA finals at the University of Alabama.
For the first time this season, the men will mount a distance medley relay team. On Friday, Umajesty Williams will run the 400 meters, followed by Maksims Sincukovs in the 800, Collin Dylla in the 1,200 and Villarreal in the 1,600. Villarreal is also scheduled to run Saturday in the 3,000.
Williams, who owns the MPSF’s fastest time in the 400, needs to improve his best time of 46.61 by about half a second to make it to Alabama, Harvey said.
The men’s team, ranked 23rd nationally, is sixth among MPSF schools. It will face tough competition from national powers such as Oregon, BYU, USC and Washington.
Harvey, who believes in setting high goals, says “the men have an opportunity to finish in the top 3 at the MPSF” if key athletes perform well.
“If we finish in the top 5,” Harvey added, “I’ll feel pretty good about that.”
The women’s team, unranked nationally, stands at No. 7 so far among MPSF schools.
The rankings are based on Division I performances compiled and scored by the U.S. Track and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The top 8 finishers in each event will win valuable points for the team scores. For that reason, Geist will also compete in the 35-pound weight throw on Friday. Other athletes will be counted on to help pile up points.
