Patrick Casey finished third in the Mile Run at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships and that was mainly due to a lack of experience. It's now a year later and the sophomore distance runner is ready to take on the field again and get a different result- a national championship.

Casey will arrive in College Station, Texas as the number one seed in the Mile. His adjusted time of 3:54.59 marks the fastest in the country and, arguably, the world this year. He ran (and won) the Mile Run in 3:59.76, on his home track back on Feb. 4. With the adjustment, it catapulted the Laurel, Mont. native to the top spot in the nation, where he has sat, unchallenged, since.

“This year, going into prelims, I feel I have a better grasp on what I need to do,” said Casey. “I'm excited. It's going to be a lot of fun to mix it up with the best kids in the nation.”

The sophomore will compete in the preliminary round of the Mile, on Friday, no earlier than 3:15 p.m. MST. The finals of the event will be run on Saturday, March 12, at 4:10 p.m. MST.

“I think our guy is going to be a shock to the big time schools,” said head coach Dale Kennedy. “To have a young man out there at the national level is great and I have no doubt that he'll do well.”

The meet is hosted by Texas A&M and will also feature live coverage of events. ESPN2 will show a tape delay of the event on March 16 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. ESPN3 will webstream the event on Friday, March 11 from 4-8:40 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, from 4-7:50 p.m. The remainder of the event will be streamed live on NCAA.com.