Surprise finish leads to NCAA spot for USD's Eichkorn

VERMILLION – Amber Eichkorn went into her most recent 10,000-meter race with time spent thinking about how things were going to unfold.

In other sports demanding strategy, you call a timeout, or take a break at the end of the quarter and cobble together Plan B when it's obvious Plan A is going awry.

There was no time for that at the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas, for Eichkorn, who then rolled with the punches — or hunches, in this case — and qualified for the NCAA Division I meet that starts Wednesday in Eugene, Ore., by finishing fifth.

"From the very first lap I was in the lead — and I was not supposed to be in the lead," said Eichkorn, a junior from Wichita, Kan. "I just didn't let it stress myself out. Before the race, Fitz (Coach Dan Fitzsimmons) told me: 'Don't be afraid of these girls. You're here to compete with them and you can compete with them.' "

Uneasy is the head that holds the lead in a 10K race against runners who have faster times, however. For the first 14 laps of this 25-lap race, Eichkorn was the group's reluctant leader.

"When you're a runner and you're following someone, you don't have to think that much," Fitzsimmons said. "All the emphasis on the pace is based on whoever is leading. If you're leading, you have to decide, 'Am I going fast? Am I going slow? Am I running into the wind? Am I blocking the wind?' She was going through that those first 14 laps."

There were runners in the race who had posted times dramatically faster than Eichkorn, so she anticipated there would be a point where the lead group would catch up and then pass her.

In a short time, she fell from the lead to 15th place. Identifying her place then became a task because some of the runners had been lapped by that point. Finishing 12th — the cutoff for a trip to Eugene — suddenly became a bookkeeping project as well as a physical one.

"In the middle of the race, I was getting scared," Eichkorn said. "I knew I was in 12th at one point because I could hear Lucky Huber in the backstretch yelling. And then they told me which girl was 10th, and after that it was like, 'OK, now if I just keep passing people I will make it.' But I had no idea I was going to finish fifth."

So she led more than half the race, then fell back to 15th — and then moved back up to fifth. A 10K roller coaster ride, you could say.

"The one thing I do remember thinking was, 'Boy, this is really a long race, and it's hot, and can we just be done with it?' " Eichkorn said. "I was struggling out there for a while."

Eichkorn, who has set school records in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, had the 27th best time going into the race. Similar to a year ago when she finished 18th against much faster runners, she put in her best effort at the right time.

"She'll tell you that some of the people she passed were not kicking it in because they were comfortable knowing they made the finals, but it was good for her to know she had a lot left," Fitzsimmons said. "It wasn't like she went out there and exhausted all her resources."

Looking forward, a year that already has included a steady diet of achievements will end where she always envisioned it ending.

"It feels amazing to know that all the hard work you put in finally pays off," Eichkorn said. "And it's also just a treat to get to go to Eugene. I've never been to Oregon."

Hunter Wilkes, a junior, is another making her first visit to the NCAA meet after qualifying in the women's pole vault. A career-best effort of 13-11 earned her seventh place and sent her to Eugene.

Teammate Emily Grove, a three-time All-American, sat out this season with an injury, and Bethany Firsick, now graduated, won the national title in 2013, so there is a bit of a legacy already established at USD in the event.

"Bethany and Emily are amazing athletes," Wilkes said. "To go 14-6 and above — they've helped all of us out. How to eat right, the right technique — all those things. I'm excited to see if I can keep that going."

Wilkes won the Summit League meet this year and has put together a season-ending push that has brought her out from under the shadows cast by a pair of all-time greats.

"I think seeing how Bethany progressed has helped Hunter," said USD pole vault coach and three-time Olympian Derek Miles. "You see yourself beginning to progress and get better and you see there is a path that has been traveled here."

The next stop, ideally, would be eclipsing the 14-foot mark in Oregon for Wilkes, who is in the midst of a momentum upswing as she nears the end of the outdoor season.

"The last couple weeks I've gradually become more consistent," Wilkes said. "It wasn't like I made some giant changes. It was getting back into the same technique I was doing. And a few weeks ago, it all started clicking a little better than normal."

She will not take personal records into the meet that are as a high as Firsick's or Grove's were, but Miles sees the potential for big jumps from the junior from Arizona.

"She's just starting to grow into the kind of athlete she's going to be," Miles said. "She'll go into the finals with the same ideology she went into the first round with. Technically she's jumping as well as I've ever seen, and there's so much more in the tank in terms of what she can do."

Of the three USD athletes advancing to the finals, Cody Snyder was the one who had been there before. And it was also Snyder, a senior discus thrower from Lake Andes, who had the toughest time at the preliminary meet.

He went into the competition with the third-best throw but finished 12th — the last spot for qualifiers — to escape and advance.

"To be completely honest, I didn't think I made it," Snyder said. "I wasn't keeping track of what I needed, but I didn't think 180 feet was going to do it. But after the last guy threw, I heard Tyler (Custis) yelling, and I'm like, 'No way.' "

He placed 12th by 1 inch.

"It was weird," Snyder said. "I'd come to terms with the season being over, and then all of a sudden I was moving on. I was super-tight going into the competition. A lot of people say — and I totally agree — that the first round is more stressful than the finals."