The women's track and field team flew to Grinnell College in Iowa yesterday for the Div. III NCAA Championships, the final event of the indoor track season which will take place Friday and Saturday. Four women will be representing Tufts — seniors Heather Theiss and Nakeisha Jones, junior Kelly Allen and sophomore Jana Hieber.
Nationals will give them a chance to compete at the highest level, as well as an opportunity to earn All-American accolades if they earn one of the top eight spots in their respective competitions.
Hieber is the youngest of the three, but she does not lack experience. She competed at Nationals in the spring of 2011 in the 400-meter hurdles, as well as in the winter of 2010 in the pole vault. This weekend, Hieber is competing in the pentathlon, where she is ranked 12th out of 15 athletes after scoring 3,236 points at the Tufts Stampede on Feb. 4. The Stampede was the only time this year that Hieber has competed in the pentathlon.
"It's exciting working on different events," Hieber said. "I'm looking forward to being the underdog."
While Hieber has excelled in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump and 800-meter race, she struggled in the shot put her first time around. However, she has been working to improve in the shot put over the last month and feels ready to compete.
"My goal is to place in the top eight of the event and be an All-American," she said. "I've been preparing for a while now, and I'm just really excited."
Jones is the most seasoned of the group, having previously competed in six national championships. She has been named an All-American at all six of those competitions and will look to make it seven of seven this weekend in the triple jump. Her distance of 39-1 1/4 on Feb. 24 at the Open New England Championships earned her the ninth seed for the event.
Theiss is the other senior competing for the Jumbos at Nationals. She is seeded 11th in the pole vault after clearing a personal record height of 12-0 1/2 at the Open New Englands. This is her third trip to Nationals, and she has her goals set especially high for this weekend.
"I'm very excited for Nationals this time around. The nerves won't be a problem, as I've been here before," Theiss said. "I've been jumping better as the season has gone on, and I definitely have momentum going into this weekend. My goal is to finish in the top eight and be an All-American, and I feel that this is the time for me to do it."
Allen, who has been the Jumbos' leading point-getter all season, rounds out the foursome. She will compete in two events, the weight throw and the shot put, which will be a new experience for her; at her previous two national meets, Allen competed in the discus. Allen is ranked ninth in the weight throw with a school record-setting toss of 57-4 3/4 at the Div. III New Englands on Feb. 17.
In the shot put, Allen was able to sneak in as the 15th-ranked athlete with her throw of 43-3 3/4 last weekend at ECAC Championships. That distance put her in a two-way tie for 15th in the nation. Allen went on to win the tiebreaker with a heave of 42-11 1/2 that beat out her opponent's next-best throw.
While all four women have been to Nationals before, none of them have taken home a title. Jones came the closest, earning a runner-up finish in the 2010 indoor triple jump.
NCAA.com will provide links to live results of the meet tomorrow and Saturday.
