By Jay Dresser
Like outdoor track and field, the indoor track and field season culminates with a national championship meet. This meet brings the best athletes in the collegiate world to one venue. It is here they compete for pride. They compete for supremacy.
Well ... not really!
'Outdoor track is where the real track and field takes place,' said Matt Nielsen, a junior 400-meter runner from Sammamish, Wash. 'Outdoor track is where everyone comes out to show their stuff. Outdoor track is where records are set.'
What is it that differentiates the two sports? What is it about indoor track that generates such a lackadaisical interest on the part of the fans?
Indoor tracks are typically 200 meters in length. Compared to an outdoor track of 400 meters, indoor tracks can be confining, making athletes more susceptible to injury.
'The difficulty when you get indoors is that you have a facility that''s about 40 percent the size of an outdoor facility,' said men''s track and field head coach Mark Robison. 'Indoors is more challenging because you can get knocked down.'
An example of this is the 400- meter race. In an outdoor competition, the participants run one lap around the track. Participants remain in their lane for the entire race.
On an indoor track, the participants run two laps and midway through the race are allowed to merge into different lanes.
'In the 400-meter when you are cutting in at full speed and four athletes are right next to each other, there is a lot of bumping and pushing,' Nielsen said.
Nielsen encountered this type of physical competition in last season''s conference meet. He and two of his BYU teammates were pushing and getting physical near the end of the race.
'It was all fun and games and we laughed about it afterwards of course, but everyone is out there to win,' Nielsen said.
Indoor and outdoor track also feature completely different events. Indoor track runs a 55-meter dash instead of a 100-meter dash. 5,000-meters is the longest race indoors, whereas outdoor track runs a 10,000-meter.
Field events vary as well. Indoor track and field does not have a javelin competition and a weight throw competition replaces the discuss. Indoor facilities cannot always accommodate the pole vault competition.
Pole vault coach Larry Berryhill could not take some of the vaulters to the Snake River Open in Idaho this season.
'The facility there is downright dangerous for kids that are going as high as we got,' Berryhill said.
Nielsen described the indoor track and field season as a preparatory season. He uses the indoor season to prepare mentally and work out the kinks before the outdoor season begins.
'My goal is to be an All-American indoor,' Nielson said. 'But it means more to me to be an All-American outdoors. Outdoor track is where you come and play.'