Matt Canterbury - Asst. Coach
Two-time All-American and red-shirt freshman Alexis Skarda will be competing in the 5000m at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships May 28-29. This is her first trip to the outdoor version of Nationals, but not her first experience with big events.
After finishing 19th as a freshman at cross country nationals and earning her first All-American award, Alexis red-shirted the 2009 track campaign due to a nagging injury. She came back stronger than ever in the 2009 cross country season only to have a return trip to Nationals dashed by an illness at Regionals.
The 2010 indoor season rolled around and Alexis was fit and anxious to race. She ran a couple 1600 and 800 races before she broke out with an automatic qualifying time in the 1600 at Albuquerque's host track for Indoor Nationals. Alexis was ranked 9th heading into the meet and finished 4th with her second All-American award.
During outdoor, Alexis automatically qualified in her first 5k of the season, then went to Arizona State and ran a 1500m that now ranks 8th in the nation. There are only three other women who have 1500m times as fast as Alexis's, and she will put her finishing kick up against anyone.
Alexis is currently ranked 19th, and this puts her in an underdog position. She will run a prelim on Friday and the top four from each heat, plus the next four fastest times advance to the final on Saturday. She has been in prelims a few times this season and she has natural race tactics.
Please check the heat sheets, schedule, and results on our athletics homepage at www.mesamavs.com to catch a glimpse of how Alexis is doing. You can also check with www.flotrack.com to see if they have live feeds from the Championships.