The Pressure of a Second
CSU track and field looks toward the Indoor Mountain West Championships
Liv Sewell
Championships aren’t won by minutes and feet of difference, but rather by centimeters and seconds.
Any type of championship is buzzing -- an electric mix of energy, nervousness and most of all, excitement.
Adrenaline pumping and waiting for the go ahead, it can be as mental as it is physical. The stakes are high, and the track is brimming with athletes prepared to push their limits.
“For big meets, I tend to get very nervous before,” said Neya Jamison, a junior hurdler. “It’s taken a lot to condition my mind to try and keep my anxiety a bit lower before so that I don’t use all my energy.”
Jamison’s sentiment reflects the dual nature of the sport. Most of the season is spent in a battle against oneself -- chasing personal bests, perfecting technique and shaving fractions of a second off times. It’s a grind focused on incremental progress, searching for an elusive PR.
But the Mountain West Championships are different. It demands not just individual excellence but also a collective effort. Points are accumulated across every event, from the long jump pit to the high-stakes relay baton exchanges, making team spirit a crucial element of success.
“You can feel it in the air,” said CSU assistant coach J.J. Riese, who oversees the sprinters, hurdlers and relays. “It’s really cool because everybody is there to do the same thing. Every athlete at that meet is trying to finish at the absolute highest point they can. They know it’s the culmination. It’s what they’re measured on and it’s what their scholarship can be determined by. The gravity is just so much more significant, and you can feel it.”
Individual excellence can mount pressure on the large roster CSU track and field holds, where athletes from polar-opposite disciplines must work together for a higher goal, another trophy.
Last season, both the men’s and women’s teams won conference indoor titles, something which has not happened since the 2018-19 season. And being up there together makes it all the more powerful.
“Getting to celebrate all together, it’s a great feeling,” Jamison said. “My freshman year, it was just the girls’ team that won, and the boys’ team was just sitting off to the side, watching us get our trophies and taking all our pictures. It was just so sad.”
For the Rams, the dual championship titles earned last season are more than a source of pride -- they’re a reminder of what’s possible when individual grit and collective ambition come together. Repeating a success requires the same level of dedication, unity, and execution, but this time, they carry the weight of defending champions, a journey which begins Dec. 7 when the team splits between the Wyoming Power Meet and the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston.
A weight which hasn’t felt like a burden. Instead, it has become a motivator, especially for athletes like senior hurdler Cole Nordman, who see last year’s success as proof of the team’s capability.
“I think we are going into it with no pressure,” Nordman said. “We have the intention of winning it, but there’s not more pressure because we won it last year. I think, as a team, we’re more confident this year because we won last year.”
You want to be right before it peaks because when you get to the blocks, that last bit of adrenaline will kick in and you’ll be at your peak.Neya Jamison
Nordman’s confidence is echoed across the roster, where veterans and newcomers alike share a belief which they can make it happen again. A belief which doesn’t stem from complacency but from the demanding work put in over the months leading up to this championship.
And in that way, meets are no different than practice. Come back to a familiar place and run, throw or jump. All the while, being with a singular team, no matter the difference in event. Keeping the comparison at a level ready for improvement.
“I think some comparison is good,” Riese said. “You don’t know where to go if you don’t have a comparison. Everybody has certain things they’ve been working on and, especially on meet day. I don’t treat the meet any different than practice from a headspace standpoint.
“Hopefully the meet, naturally, with their adrenaline, will take them higher. But you want them to be approaching it mentally similarly. And then, with the championship, you try not to treat that too terribly different from a regular meet. Hopefully, just the atmosphere is elevating.”
It can be a tricky balance, however, between allowing excitement in and not letting the feeling overtake a goal.
Something the team uses to combat this is a strategy to help athletes pinpoint their ideal level to achieve their goals.
“It’s a little chart with excitement levels,” Jamison said. “If you’re too low below the race, your performance will be bad, but if you’re too high, you’ll also do bad. You want to be right before it peaks because when you get to the blocks, that last bit of adrenaline will kick in and you’ll be at your peak.”
With the timing laid out and the anticipation kept at a manageable level, Riese looks for “cues,” as he calls them.
A sign of what an athlete wishes to do differently or a singular thought to keep in mind while racing. As electric as indoor can be, focusing on one thing as opposed to the stimuli at every corner can ground a nervous athlete.
“During the warmup, I always ask them what’s their cue for the day,” Riese said. “It’s going to be technical in some manner and then that’ll hopefully help them focus inward as opposed to outward. You don’t want to be blank; you want to have something you’re addressing. (But) you really can’t think about more than one thing at a time because you’re taking four strides per second.”
Focusing inward can yield fruitful victories. But, winning can be just as much about getting up after failures than celebrating successes.
One example includes a close call from last year’s competition when graduate student Eldridge Harris missed his first two pole vault attempts, where the whole team was relying on his third.
“We were all over there stressing and cheering for him” Jamison said. “He cleared his third and got us the points we needed to win. It’s so nerve wracking but exciting seeing your teammates excel.
“Some just excel beyond any level that they had before at that meet just because of the indoor energy. We’re all in such close proximity to each other. You get to cheer for every single event, and I feel like I normally don’t cheer for throwers as much, but at indoor, we’re always over at the throwing ring.”
Focusing on the task at hand and not relying on comparison to other people where it becomes an internal battle.
It’s a fine line between using competitors as motivation or letting the comparison derail confidence. A perspective Nordman has tuned to his needs. His approach boils down to one guiding principle: stay in your lane -- both literally and figuratively.
“I always go back to the quote, ‘comparison is the thief of joy,’” Nordman said. “I just think about that. Sure, there was this guy when I was at regionals with who was number two in the country. I’m going to die against this guy, right? But I can’t focus on him beating me. I have to focus on myself and trying to qualify for that next round. The same goes for conference. I look at the people next to me and I say, ‘I’m going to beat you.’”
For CSU, the goal is clear: leave everything on the track, in the pit, and in the circle. Whether it’s Jamison and Nordman hurdling toward the finish line, relay teams passing the baton with precision, or Mya Lesnar unleashing her throwing power to win an NCAA Indoor Championship in the shot put, every moment matters.
The Rams aren’t just chasing personal bests, they’re chasing something bigger. As they step into the arena Feb. 27-28, 2025, for the Mountain West Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., they carry the weight of their training, their teammates, and their dreams. One centimeter, one second, one point at a time, they’re ready to give it their all.
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