The NC State men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams are set to battle this Friday and Saturday as the Wolfpack travel to Blacksburg, Virginia for the Virginia Tech Invitational.
This weekend’s meet will be the Pack’s first of five appearances at Virginia Tech’s impressive Rector Field House, which doubles as the Hokies’ practice facility for football.
Rector Field House is unique in that it provides its competitors with the opportunity to set faster times as a result of its banked track. For those involved in the growing community of sport science, the faster times on the banked track make perfect sense.
It all goes back to Newton’s first law of motion which states, “an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
In other words, a sprinter running 20 mph on a straightaway can continue to run 20 mph on the straightaway, but the sprinter cannot maintain the speed of 20 mph around a turn unless aided by an unbalanced force. The slight elevation on the outside of the banked track acts as the unbalanced force which allows runners to slingshot around the bends.
The difference in times between flat tracks and banked tracks has been significant enough that the NCAA has deemed it necessary to provide a conversion between the courses. This system allows times recorded on flat tracks to be more accurately compared to times recorded on banked tracks.
Physics aside, State has performed formidably in each of its first four meets of the season. Several athletes have posted premier marks.
For the women, redshirt junior All-American Nicole Chavis set the NCAA’s fourth-best mark of the season in the weight throw event with a toss of 20.26 meters at the 6-Way Meet in Greensboro Dec. 1.
Redshirt senior Lacey Shuman also set a top mark in Greensboro at the high jump where she recorded a leap of 1.80 meters, good for the NCAA’s fourth-best jump in the event this season.
Junior Alexis Perry entered the season ranked 20th in the long jump event but has found early success in the 60-meter hurdles. Perry claimed first place in the event’s preliminary heat and in the final race at Chapel Hill with finishes of 8.39 and 8.42 respectively.
Similarly, on the men’s side, junior Jonathan Addison entered the season ranked 12th in the nation in the long jump event; however, it has been the 60-meter dash and the mile run where the Raleigh native has really made his mark thus far. Addison claimed first place in the 60-meter dash at Greensboro and first in the mile run at the Gene Anderson Invite in Chapel Hill.
Redshirt junior Graham Crawford, who has not participated in any of the Pack’s early races, will join Addison in the mile run this weekend. Crawford finished with All-ACC honors during the cross country season and is ranked 25th in the nation in the mile event.
The men’s pleasant surprise has been true freshman Jonathan Knight. Knight posted a blistering time of 1.54.69 in the 800m run at Greensboro, which was good enough for first at the meet and also the NCAA’s seventh fastest time in the event this year.
