5 men head to Sacramento for NCAAs

After a long season of facing off against the nation's best, five men's track athletes will spend Wednesday through Saturday competing at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif., at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex. \nFor three of these athletes, it will be their final outdoor track competition in an IU uniform. Displaying the grit and determination characteristic of seniors, these athletes have carefully prepared themselves to leave a permanent mark on the track program. \nSenior decathlete Jake Wiseman finished 21st overall at NCAAs last season. This year his runner-up finish at the Big Tens, with a final point total of 7,339, qualified him for the meet. \n"My main goal is to break the school record," said Wiseman, who will need another 400 points to do so. "I feel healthy going into the meet, and I want to get through the last event -- the 1,500 meters -- strong enough to be All-American."\nSenior 3,000 meter steeplechaser Tom Burns is also chasing his first All-America award. He competed at the meet in 2003 and redshirted the 2004 season. At the NCAA MidEast Regional two weeks ago, Burns set a personal best of 8 minutes and 41.14 seconds. After a long year of cross country, indoor and outdoor track, Burns is now rested and ready to challenge the nation's best, he said. \n"Since regionals, training has been great," Burns said. "I nailed my bread and butter workout and felt like I'm right where I need to be so I can try to kick for a title. We set things up perfectly, and if I run my own race and avoid getting sucked into a fast early pace, I'll be there with a lap to go. Then it's just about who can finish."\nSenior All-American Aarik Wilson has already left his mark on the track program. He holds school records indoors and outdoors and has twice finished second in the triple jump at the NCAAs. This past indoor season, he took the NCAA long and triple jump titles. \n"I'm just fine tuning and getting ready to jump far," said Wilson, who suffered a minor injury at the Big Ten Championships. "My injury is coming along fine. My goals haven't changed. I want to win both jumps. The only difference is that now we are outside and I have more to prove."\nJunior All-American Sean Jefferson is also a former NCAA Champ. After winning the 2004 Indoor Mile title, he has remained among the nation's best 1,500 meter runners. \n"I feel like I'm rounding into shape for NCAAs. The 1,500 is stacked this year," said Jefferson, who suffered a mid-foot injury at the end of the 2004 outdoor season. "I'm really looking forward to getting out there and racing those guys. The most important thing is performing at the highest level that I can. If I do that, I'll be satisfied."\nThe final Hoosier competing at NCAAs is junior All-American Stephen Haas in the 5,000 meters. He earned All-America honors in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters indoors and recently finished second in the nation's toughest distance running \nregion. \n"We've been training great and I got some solid sharpening speedwork this week," said Haas, who showed no signs of fatigue in running 13:58 5,000 meters at the Mideast Regional. "I feel good about the way things are going, more ready to run each week. I look forward to getting in the race and mixing it up at the front."\nResults will be available online at www.iuhoosiers.com.