Whenever Jaquan Holland returns to the New York City area to compete, he feels a level of comfort he rarely experiences anywhere else during the season.

It’s the chance to return to the place he knows best. A chance to return home.

‘Any time I’m at The Armory, it’s like home for me,’ Holland said. ‘It’s a comfort zone. So every time I go there I perform well.’

So when Holland ran personal records in the preliminary and consolation rounds of the 200-meter dash earlier this month at the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory in New York City, it wasn’t a coincidence. Simply being close to home, where family and friends support him from the stands, elevates Holland’s motivation to another level.

Holland is one of many Syracuse athletes who will be participating in the 2012 Big East Indoor Track and Field Championships at The Armory in New York City this weekend. For Holland, it’ll be the biggest meet of his Syracuse career so far. The Orange plans to send roughly 50 athletes to the meet, all of whom were required to meet qualifying standards. While Holland may be one of the few who is returning to his hometown area, all of Syracuse’s competitors will feel an extra level of motivation to succeed in one of the most important meets of the season.

By achieving a standard time or distance this weekend, athletes can earn automatic qualification for the NCAA Indoor National Championships.

Events run all day Saturday and Sunday, concluding with an awards ceremony Sunday afternoon. Head coach Chris Fox said this weekend will mark the end of the indoor season for about 80 percent of the SU athletes, who will then start training for the outdoor season.

Team points will be scored for placements in individual events, but Fox said that Syracuse does not put a huge emphasis on the team’s finish in the Big East standings. At last season’s indoor championships, the men’s and women’s teams finished ninth and 11th, respectively.

Fox said he hopes for an improvement on those numbers, but it’s the individual performances he would most like to see the biggest progression in.

‘As opposed to scoring a ton of points, we try to have some quality people,’ Fox said.

Individual Syracuse athletes boast some of the best marks in the Big East this season. On the women’s side, senior Lauren Penney holds the second-best time in the conference in both the mile run and 3,000-meter run. Graduate student Flings Owusu-Agyapong sprinted to the top time in the conference in the women’s 60-meter dash. Holland ranks fourth and second in the Big East in the 60- and 200-meter dashes, respectively. And graduate student Jarret Eaton ran the best time in the entire nation in the 60-meter hurdles.

Although past times are often used as indicators, Fox said the seeding from earlier performances can be deceiving. Most of the athletes at Syracuse and other Big East schools have only run two meets coming into the championships.

Fox said that veteran athletes may not have performed their best up to this point, and they will be striving to reach their peak level of performance this weekend.

‘Some older, fifth-year, fourth-year kids at some other schools might not have run hard yet, so this might be the first time they’ve run hard,’ Fox said. ‘The seeding means nothing at this point.’

Eaton has already qualified for the national championships, and his teammates will attempt to join him this weekend. If they don’t, they’ll get one final shot at the Columbia Last Chance meet March 3.

Fox said tension and nerves begin to surface during championship rounds when athletes realize the significance of the meet. And because it serves as the conclusion of the indoor season for many athletes, Fox refuses to downplay its importance.

‘We take the pressure off for a lot of meets, but not for this one,’ Fox said. ‘This one’s important. It’s important that they go there and try to do well for Syracuse University.’

jspramuk@syr.edu 

Published on February 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu