Montana State's Patrick Casey qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in the men's mile to be held at Fayetteville, Arkansas March 12-13. The trials for the event will be held Friday at 3:55 p.m. (MST) and the final is Saturday at 5:15 p.m.(MST). Casey goes into the race ranked tenth in the nation in a field of 16 runners. This is Casey's first season running indoor track and field.
“You never know about these things until all the entries are done,” head coach Dale Kennedy said. “We didn't know if he'd get in or not. Going into the entering day, he was 16th, but a few of the guys that qualified decided not to run the race because they probably had other races they qualified in.”
Kennedy said the original field of 14 was expanded to 16 probably because the field is so competitive this year.
“There were more guys under a four-minute mile this year than there usually is,” Kennedy said. “I expected they might expand the field.”
Kennedy said there is a big difference between what Casey has been running and what the top four runners have done. But he doesn't doubt his ability to get himself into that group.
“He has a way of getting himself into a winning situation,” Kennedy said. “The leaders in this event are a couple seconds ahead of what Patrick has run this year—that is a huge difference in this race. Our first goal is to get into the final, and then get an All-America honor, which is the top eight.”
Kennedy admits that Casey probably has a different goal.
“Patrick wants to win, so I know he'll try and put himself in a position to do that,” Kennedy said.
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. Click on the FAQs link for software and system requirements, etc. ArkansasRazorbacks.com will stream supplemental coverage as available when ESPN360.com is not live. Live results can be found at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
