When Boise State senior weight thrower Mele Vaisima arrived at the Mountain West indoor championships, she knew she needed to beat her personal best by nearly 3 feet to earn a spot in the NCAA meet.
She beat it by nearly 4? feet.
Vaisima?s throw of 69 feet, 8? inches gives her the seventh seed for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, which are Friday and Saturday at the Jacksons Indoor Track in Nampa.
The weight throw is Friday afternoon.
This is Vaisima?s first appearance at an NCAA championship meet, and it will be over before the meet truly gets rolling Friday evening.
?It goes by fast,? Vaisima said. ?But at the time, I feel like time is kind of standing still. The adrenaline level is all the way up there and I try to keep it cool. I can?t wait. I?m really excited.?
In the weight throw, the 17 participants each get three throws. The nine athletes with the best throws advance to the finals, where they get three more throws. The best throw out of six attempts wins.
Jeneva McCall of Southern Illinois leads the field by more than 6 feet, but Vaisima is less than 18 inches behind the No. 2 seed.
?Anything can happen in a meet like this,? Vaisima said. ?I have to go in there and do my own thing and not worry about what the other person is doing.?
After all, Vaisima wasn?t supposed to win the Mountain West title, either.
The favorite had a disappointing meet and Vaisima delivered that personal-record heave.
?Practice went really well,? she said. ?I made a few changes to my technique. I was ready.?
Vaisima is from Woods Cross, Utah, near Salt Lake City. She got into throwing heavy objects when the Judge Memorial High football coach approached her as a freshman.
?You look pretty strong,? he told her. ?Can you throw a shot put??
Her reply: ?What?s a shot put??
Outdoors, she competes in the shot put, discus and hammer. The hammer is her best event.
She has developed enough ? she threw the weight 60 feet, 2 inches at the WAC meet three years ago ? that she?s considering post-collegiate competition. She graduated in December with a social science degree.
?I love this,? she said of the competition. ?It?s intense.?
KURT FELIX, BOISE STATE
The senior from Grenada has won five conference titles and will appear in his third NCAA meet. He previously competed in the 2010 outdoor championships and 2011 indoor championships. He redshirted during the 2011 outdoor season, so this is his third straight season in which he has qualified for nationals.
Felix qualified 10th in the heptathlon with a school-record 5,771 points and 15th in the long jump.
He finished 11th in the heptathlon at the NCAA indoor meet last year.
?You?ve got depth (at the NCAA meets),? he said, ?so you?ve got to be on your A-game all the time.?
Felix?s strength is the outdoor decathlon, which includes his favorite event, the javelin.
But he has improved in the seven-event heptathlon this year because of better performances in the pole vault. The other six events are the 60 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60 hurdles and 1,000.
?I learned to pole vault,? Felix said, explaining how his scores have improved. ?It?s just overcoming that fear that I had.?
Felix has struggled in the shot put this season and will need to improve there if he wants to challenge top-seeded Gunnar Nixon, an Arkansas freshman who qualified with 6,022 points.
?I know there?s going to be a lot of competition,? Felix said. ?I?ve got to step it up a lot more, just go out there and have fun and hopefully everything falls into place.?
HANNAH KISER, IDAHO
Kiser didn?t have any plans for a competitive future after her career at Wenatchee (Wash.) High.
About two months before her expected enrollment at Western Washington, the Vandals called and offered her a track and field scholarship.
?That really affected why I got a lot better, because I had this idea of what a Division I athlete needs to be,? Kiser, a sophomore, said. ?They can?t be bad at anything. Even if you have weaknesses, they still have to be something you?re good at. I trained really hard. Also, I wanted to give back to coach (Wayne) Phipps and the University of Idaho for giving me a chance. He gave me an opportunity, so now I?m going to give everything I have back.?
Twenty-one months after that unexpected phone call, Kiser enters the NCAA meet as the ninth seed in the 3,000. She also made nationals in cross country last fall.
?Phipps is an amazing coach,? Kiser said. ?If you want to be successful, come here. I can say that very confidently if he can take someone at my level in high school and make me an athlete who competes at nationals.?
Kiser finished 85th out of 253 runners at the NCAA cross country meet. She has much higher hopes for this week.
?In cross country, I was just going to go in and get some experience,? she said. ?Here, I definitely feel like I?m someone you should watch out for.?
Kiser competes in the 800, mile and 3,000 indoors, with an emphasis on the 3,000. She competes in the 1,500 and 5,000 outdoors, with emphasis on the 5,000.
She?s improving rapidly, but isn?t sure if she?s getting faster or just improving her endurance. In the race in which she qualified for the NCAA meet, she ran at the back of the pack for 2,000 meters and then scampered past nearly everyone in the closing 1,000.
On Friday, she expects to react more to the field than the clock.
?Nationals isn?t about going out and getting the time you want,? she said. ?It?s about placing and competing. You have to react to what people are doing, but you can?t overreact to things. ? It?s not a very fun race if you?re not racing.?
JEREMY KLAS, IDAHO
Klas, a senior pole vaulter, is an even less likely elite competitor than Kiser.
The Moscow High graduate wasn?t recruited at all. He contacted the Idaho coaches and asked if he could join the team. They allowed him to walk on but told him that roster limits required them to make cuts.
?I was so paranoid the entire time that I wasn?t going to make the team,? he said. ?It really made me strive to compete harder and work harder ? and here I am, four years later.?
Klas earned a berth in the NCAA indoor meet for the third straight year this season. He?s seeded 10th in a tightly packed field.
?I think I have a legitimate chance of winning,? he said. ?Everyone who made it this year is within 4 or 5 inches of each other. It just takes one good jump.?
In the pole vault, jumpers get three chances to clear each height. If they fail, they?re knocked out. If there?s a tie, it?s broken by the fewest attempts used.
Klas tied for ninth at the 2010 indoor meet and finished 16th at the 2010 outdoor meet. He didn?t clear a height at the 2011 indoor meet because he was beaten down by the flu. He didn?t compete in the 2011 outdoor season, so this is his first shot at redemption.
?Certain things are out of your control,? he said, ?but I?m definitely looking forward to having an opportunity to compete and actually beat some people this year. Having been there a few times, it helps a lot with the nerves. ? I know the good and the bad, and I also know the level of competition I?ll be competing against.?
Chadd Cripe: 377-6398
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