NCAA WEST PRELIMS NOTES (PDF)
PORTLAND, Ore. — When in doubt, trust grandma.
Portland State track & field runner
Kaila Gibson's qualification for the NCAA West Prelims may have not been in much doubt. Her qualifying time in the 10k – 34:12.51, set at the Stanford Invitational – ended up being more than 20 seconds faster than the final qualifying time of 34:33.91. Still, that didn't stop Gibson's grandma from scouting the entire NCAA west region, and following 10k times from conference meets across the region to make sure she qualified.
"She predicted dead-on where I was going to be [in the rankings]. Not after scratches. Now she's a couple off, but she's just so excited and has been really, really looking forward to it," Gibson said of her grandma.
Gibson moved up to 34th in the NCAA west region rankings after scratches came in, but finished 38th following the end of conference meets, as predicted by her grandma. She'll compete in her first NCAA West Prelims meet later this week as a result, competing alongside her close friend and training partner
Sarah Medved, who qualified for the second straight season in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The pair have wanted to compete alongside one another at the NCAA West Prelims since last season, when Medved made her breakthrough in her first year running the steeplechase. It's been a journey for Gibson to find her own way there, however, and it didn't come until she found the 10k, an event she's remarkably still only run twice as a Viking.
The same weekend Medved broke the school record in the steeplechase and qualified for the NCAA West Prelims at the Mt. SAC Relays last season, Gibson was trying to qualify in the 5,000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Gibson did well at the meet, shaving 36 seconds off her personal best while finishing in 16:47.04, but it wasn't enough to make the NCAA West Prelims.
Having Gibson attempt to make it in the 5k made sense for her and the Viking coaches. Gibson had broken the school record in the indoor 5k earlier in the season, after all, and was the Vikings' top runner at every cross country meet at which she competed in the fall. Still, Gibson went into the 2018 Big Sky outdoor meet at Idaho without a qualifier.
Gibson's lack of a regional mark would prove to be more a blessing than a curse, however, as it gave the Viking coaches the opportunity to experiment with Gibson in the 10k.
"We don't typically like running the 10k [at conference] if you have regionals to train for afterwards. Just because it's a two-week recovery. That's a tough turnaround. But since she didn't have a mark, there was nothing to lose there," assistant coach
Josh Seitz said.
Gibson had also shown potential in the 10k in training, as Seitz said she would consistently out-perform other runners in the longer training sessions. But by then, it was so late in the season that Gibson estimates she only had one or two 10k training sessions before heading to Idaho.
"Going into that conference 10k race, it was something we were just looking to have a little bit of fun with and see what I could do," Gibson said of her memories leading into the Big Sky meet last season.
A qualifying mark still seemed like a possibility despite the lack of training, and the Vikings took some steps to see if Gibson could do it. Conference races are notoriously slow since runners are mostly racing for place rather than time, which isn't conducive to runners trying for a late qualifier like Gibson. To counteract that, then-freshman
Meggie Karp played the rabbit, taking the pace out hard to see if Gibson could get a qualifying time.
However, a constant wind, coupled with the slight elevation of Moscow, Idaho (2500 ft), and a talented 10k field that caught up to Gibson without ever helping push the pace, meant Gibson wouldn't get her qualifier.
"After less than half of the distance, it occurred to me that it's probably not going to happen today," Gibson said.
Gibson ended up fifth in 35:24.64. It wasn't a bad 10k debut by any means – she would move up to fifth all time at Portland State in the 10k with the time – but not good enough to make it to the NCAA West Prelims.
Still, the buzz among Gibson and the Viking coaches was that Gibson had found her new race.
"Even though the time wasn't that killer, the way she competed and the people she beat and the people she wasn't too far behind was just a great indicator that [the 10k] was going to be her race," Seitz said.
If her promising debut in the 10k wasn't enough, Gibson created more buzz around herself with another strong cross country season – she earned All-Big Sky honors for the first time in her career with a ninth-place finish at conference – and shaved 20 seconds off her own record in the indoor 5k, finishing in 16:33.38.
This time around Gibson would also have a full year of 10k training under her belt, as opposed to the one or two workouts she had before the Big Sky 10k last season.
That didn't mean there wasn't some trepidation before her second-career 10k at the Stanford Invitational earlier this season, however.
"We were a little nervous going in [to Stanford]," Seitz said. "I don't know if the coaching staff communicated this to her, but I think on both sides, her and the staff, we knew the buildup hadn't been perfect. She had had a few little aches and pains building up a few weeks into indoor conference, and then we were pretty conservative after that.
"But we still thought she had a chance at doing something if she ran the race perfect. Two weeks before the race, I think she had one pretty solid workout, and that gave everybody a bit of confidence."
Stanford promised to be a different race than the Big Sky was the previous year as runners would be going to for qualifying times this time around instead of running tactically. That fit into Gibson's plans, though it meant she ran the first part of the race in dead last as runners went out hard.
Considering Gibson's only other 10k experience was the Big Sky 10k where she had to push the pace to try and get a qualifier, running in last place as the other runners pushed her was a stark difference for Gibson to deal with. Gibson dealt with it well, though, and stayed on or slightly ahead of the pace that she and Seitz had settled on beforehand.
"I just remember hearing my mom in the stands and I heard the panic in her voice, like 'why are you in last place? What are you doing?' But I just knew that it's not a short race. It's not a mile. And I knew that I was exactly where I needed to be and the girls were going to come back to me, and they did," Gibson said of the race at Stanford.
Gibson finished in 34:12.51, shaving 70 seconds off the time she set at the Big Sky outdoor meet the previous year. Gibson's time put much of the qualifying drama out of the way early, as it was close to 35 seconds better than the final qualifying time the previous year.
With that in her pocket, Gibson has not run another 10k this season, instead competing in other events before her return to the 10k later this week at the NCAA West Prelims.
There will only be one round of the 10k at the NCAA West Prelims, with the top 12 in the field advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, June 5-8, in Austin, Texas. Finishing in the top 12 will be a big ask for Gibson, but she has a blueprint for how to get there from her race at Stanford. Gibson was last in the first part of that race, after all, but ended up finishing 15th in a 28-runner field.
Gibson and Seitz say their strategy for the NCAA West Prelims will be similar.
"Coach and I were talking and he said, 'you know, there's going to be those six-plus girls that are just pretty much in their own little world.' I'm going to get lapped because there are girls in our region that are just so incredible. So pretty much what I'll be doing is going out consistent, go out strong but controlled, and just hold onto that pain train and then race at the end," Gibson said.
"I know it's a long shot to make it to nationals. Nothing's impossible, obviously, but I think if I run a smart, consistent race, it'll put me in contention for it."
No matter what happens at the NCAA West Prelims, it's been nice for the Viking coaches to see Gibson rewarded for her hard work. Gibson serves as captain for the Viking women's distance crew, and to have your captain have success individually helps their credibility with the younger runners.
"So much of the progress that we've made over the last couple of years here goes to her," Seitz said of Gibson. "She just leads by example and does everything right. And she's been amazing with all our freshmen coming in. After cross country races, good or bad, Kaila would force every single runner to state one positive aspect of the race during the team warm-down. She takes teammates out to coffee when they are struggling with the transition to college, or when a freshman seems concerned they aren't running world-beating times in their first collegiate track season. Kaila helps stress – and serve as an example – for the long-term vision we have for each of them."
Head coach
David Hepburn also credits Gibson with establishing the right team culture off the track.
"What I really love about Kaila is just the smile that she brings all the time. Her positive attitude about everything. When it comes to workouts or anything," Hepburn said of Gibson. "She gets done with a race and she usually has a smile on her face and she's pretty happy about it. She has a great, just positive attitude about life and that rubs off on the younger athletes. It's just so much fun to have her around."
Part of that fun for Gibson has been competing next to Medved. The two work well together, and qualifying next to each other for the NCAA West Prelims has been a goal since Medved broke out in the steeplechase last season.
"If I didn't have her, I wouldn't be where I am today," Gibson said of Medved. "It's just so important to be able to train with people. When you have someone you look up to and also want to compete with – in the most positive way – it elevates the type of training you can have. I'm just so excited that I get to go there with her.
"We're thinking about getting tattoos to commemorate it because it's such an incredible experience to have my best friend, my training partner, my teammate, my roommate, everything, with me."
And whether they're supportive of those new tattoos or not, Gibson's family should also be in attendance as well, including the grandma who predicted the whole thing.
