Towns competes in NCAA meet

During the course of the 2004 indoor track season, IU junior sprinter Ara Towns' frequent flyer miles increased. Earlier in the season, she traveled to New York City, and now, for the second time this season, she'll be headed to Fayetteville, Ark. This trip will be the biggest yet, as she competes in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.\nMaking her first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Towns qualified for the meet after her performance at the Big Ten Championships in Iowa two weeks ago. She finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.34 seconds. However, she is not a stranger to the NCAA Championship atmosphere, as she made appearances in the NCAA Outdoor Championships the previous two seasons in the 4x100-meter relay and earned All-American honors both times.\nTowns said she needs to take the experience from the Outdoor Championships and treat her race today as though it is her last.\n"I don't have time to slack up or anything," Towns said. "I just have to try to run fast for all the races."\nTowns' time from the Big Ten meet improved from her previous provisional qualifying time (7.43 seconds) at the Missouri Tiger Classic in January.\nShe learned Monday evening that her time in the Big Ten meet provisionally qualified her for the national meet as a No. 12 seed. Her time in the Big Ten meet set a career personal record, breaking her previous best of 7.39 seconds from last season's Big Ten meet.\nIn February, Towns competed in the Verizon Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. Connie Moore of Penn State and Towns were the only two sprinters in the 60-meter dash not from an East Coast school competing in the event. Towns finished third (7.53 seconds) behind Moore, who was second (7.52 seconds).\nThe NCAA seeded Moore sixth, but Towns said her goal is to beat the other 11 people seeded in front of her.\n"(Moore) is someone there, but, of course, she is one of the people that I have to beat in order to win or anything to get into the top two," Towns said.\nMoore beat Towns for the second time this season two weeks ago in the Big Ten meet, as Moore ran a track record 7.27 seconds, automatically qualifying her for the NCAA meet.\nTowns took last weekend off as other IU athletes traveled to South Bend for the Alex Smith "Last Chance" Invitational for their final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA meet. IU associate head coach and sprinting coach Ed Beathea said keeping Towns at home last weekend probably would not have improved her time by a large margin. \nPlus, Beathea said entering the NCAA meet after coming off her personal record performance at the Big Ten meet should help Towns' race.\n"She went into the weekend (ranked) 12th," Bethea said. "After all the last chance meets, she comes out 12th, which means that there was nobody that really did anything over the weekend in the 60. So it ended up being a good payoff."\nTowns said she will be happy with whatever her performance is this weekend.\n"The fact that I am going is victory enough for me," Towns said. "But of course, everybody who goes wants to win. That's the ultimate goal, but just to go is great in itself."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.