Q&A with All-American thrower Derek Randall
Senior All-American thrower Derek Randall is ready to start the 2007 outdoor track and field season. While he has competed in three meets and met the NCAA regional qualifying mark in the discus, Randall wants more. With the final home meet of his college career on the horizon, and his last Big 12 Outdoor Conference, NCAA Midwest Regional and potentially his last NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship within reach, the Beeville, Texas native explained to TexasSports.com his focus going into this weekend's Texas Twilight and the remainder of the 2007 campaign. This is your last meet at home and your senior year. Is there a little emotion going into it? No not really, I just want to continue to throw well, and am just trying to prepare myself for the bigger meets -- Big 12s, NCAA Midwest Regional and hopefully NCAAs. With each meet, you must have set objectives -- whether it is a distance or a place. What are you looking to do in this meet? With the Twilight, I am just looking to work on my technique and improve my throw. Finishing in a certain position or throwing a certain distance really doesn't matter that much; I'm more concerned with maintenance to the technique. I have already qualified for regionals and other than really just going out there and improving technically, I am entered for training. One of the things that athletes focus on is consistency. Have you been consistent in your series these last few meets? I've been fairly consistent. I didn't do as well as I had hoped at Texas Relays. But I still had a good throw out there. I would like to get that 200 (hitting the 200-feet mark in the discus) out of the way, but we will se what happens. What has been your highlight for this year? It's been a pretty slow year. We have only had three meets. The first meet I threw a 196, so I guess you could call that a highlight because that was the best throw I had all year. Overall, we've only had one really big meet -- the Texas Relays. It has been a slow year because it's only been three meets, but I feel like it has been longer. Looking ahead to some of the bigger meets such as Penn Relays and Big 12's, does your focus change? Are you looking for a certain distance or a certain place on the awards' podium? Not really, my focus has been to compete and try to win; the throws will come. There is going to be competition at every meet so if I go out there looking to win, I am going to have to have a big throw to win. I worry about one thing -- the big throw. What are your looking forward to for the next three or four meets? I am looking forward to conference, regionals and NCAAs. I am kind of getting towards the end of track but since I know that if have another good throw, things will change. I am just ready to get into the big meets and get those out of the way. I am ready for school to be over because that's when the big meets start.
|
|
