The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
4x100 Relay Team Ready To Run At NCAAs
6/4/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
June 4, 2013
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- When UAB's 4x100 meter relay team takes the track Wednesday afternoon at Eugene, Ore., the occasion will mark the fruition of a season-long goal that few thought would be attained in 2013.
The 4x100 semifinal heats at the NCAA Outdoor Championship will commence at 4:00 p.m. PT at Hayward Field, one of the world's most famous track and field venues.
Count the Blazers' Kyana White, Angel Watson, Shakima Knox and Alexis Bates -- along with head coach Kurt Thomas-- among those who DID believe that they could make it to the national championship.
"If you put the four of them together on paper, you know they're fast enough to run with some of the best in the country," said Thomas. "I've told them before that I knew they had the capability of beating some of the best in the country."
Running a relay and having success is all about execution. The Blazers had run some good times this season, but it seemed a bad exchange or two, or perhaps a lack of focus, kept the unit from turning in a time close to its capability.
Even when the quartet shattered the 18-year-old 4x100 school record set by a relay team that included Blazer legend Vonetta Jeffery, White, Watson, Knox and Bates all knew their best was still ahead.
Their 45.21 clocking at the Conference USA Championship in Houston eclipsed the 1995 mark and set the stage for the NCAA East Regional Championship.
"It all came together a little bit at conference even though we had one bad handoff," said Thomas. "We've run well throughout the year, but even when we were running well, there was always one handoff that went bad, or maybe two. I think that may have actually helped them to know that we can run a lot faster. Even though we broke a school record, there was still a bad handoff.
"I think that gave them confidence that if we correct that, we can run fast."
With the school record now in their possession, the Blazer foursome then turned their attention to the NCAA Regional at Greensboro, N.C.
UAB was placed in the second of three heats.
That the Blazers finished fifth in their heat was insignificant. What mattered most was the time that flashed on the scoreboard on the North Carolina A&T track -- 44.81. In a two-week span, White, Watson, Knox and Bates had set a school record and then delivered at the NCAA Regional by lowering that time by .40. Their time was only .10 from a seventh-place finish.
"What came together (in Greensboro) was everybody executed," said Watson, a junior from Mobile, Ala. "Coach had told us, `don't worry about trying to get to Eugene. Just go execute what we have been practicing.' Everybody went out and did their job. And good results came."
White said the group's performance at the conference meet definitely lifted them in preparation for the regional meet. "I think everybody was a little more focused," she said. "We went out with the mindset that we belonged there in Greensboro and it wasn't happenstance that we got there. We just had to go and execute. We didn't have to go out and do things differently, per se. We just needed to go out and run better."
Knox said Thomas was vocal in his confidence of the four women. "Coach kept telling us, `you can do it, you can do it," Thomas said.
There was more at stake for sure, but as Bates said, it was just a matter of delivering. "It was a big stage and everybody knew they had to bring it at this point," the junior from St. Joseph, Mo. said. "I think we did the same thing we've been doing all season. We're just a lot more comfortable now."
With the PR in hand in Greensboro, the relay team was excited and cautiously optimistic at the same time. But there was still a third heat to be run and tickets to Eugene were still up for grabs.
"The top three in each heat and then next three best times would qualify for Eugene," Thomas said. "I knew that if no one (in the third heat) ran faster than us outside of the first three, we would be in.
"They ran the third heat and I looked up at the scoreboard. And, of course, it's just a waiting game. It's probably the most nerve-racking thing there is on the track. You see the race, but you don't know what the times are yet. You're just staring and staring. It's probably the longest 15 seconds you can experience waiting for those times to pop up. And once they did, I knew we were in."
But the times were not official yet. Thomas wanted to see the "Q" (to signify qualified) displayed next to UAB's time. Finally, it appeared and the celebration began for the Blazers. Among those schools at Greensboro whose 4x100 relays finished behind UAB and did not advance to Eugene: Michigan, Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh.
"Coach had told us after our race that he thought our time was good enough to get in," said White. "Our first reaction was, ` stop kidding us, whatever.' There was still another heat, so I stood and watched the clock and the scoreboard the whole time.
"It's extremely exciting," White said. "We've been going out to try to break the school record each time, but at Regionals, we actually went out to break the school record and we made it to Nationals as well. It's great to break the record, but it's even more exciting to know that we made it to the pinnacle meet."
Knox said she knew what she and her teammates were capable of doing. "We have four very talented runners," the Tuscaloosa native said. "It was just a matter of us getting out and getting the stick around. The speed was always there in the races. It was a matter of who gets their hands up, are we leaving on time, are we executing everything we can. By us doing what we did at Regionals, we feel like the sky is the limit."
Women's 4x100 Meter Relay
Wednesday, June 5 -- 4:00 p.m. PT
Heat 1
Texas Tech
Kennesaw State
Ohio State
Texas A&M
Clemson
USC
TCU
Morgan State
Heat 2
Baylor
Arizona
South Carolina
Kansas
Oregon
Texas
Houston
East Tennessee State
Heat 3
UAB
Florida A&M
Nevada
LSU
UCF
Coastal Carolina
Rutgers
UNLV
