While his alma mater's track and field season starts Saturday in Farmington, the NCAA season-its indoor half, at least-is set to wrap up this weekend.
And a former Bayfield High School standout will be in the hunt for a national title.
Presently a junior at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, John Cusick earned himself a spot in the mile at the March 11-12 Division II Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Pittsburg (Kan.) State University.
Seeded 14th out of 17 overall in the event, with a peak time of 4:08.60, Cusick will run in the second of two heats. The first begins today at 4:15 p.m. The top three advance directly out of each waterfall-start session, as well as the next three fastest times overall-making for a nine-man final to start tomorrow at 4:55 p.m.
Cusick had previously run a 4:18.19, placing ninth, at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships held Feb. 26-27 at Chadron State College in Nebraska.
Clocking a new meet-record 4:07.95 was Black Hills State senior Alec Baldwin, one of seven others included in Cusick's heat for the NCAA's but its highest seed and #2 overall due to his 4:00.49 best.
Now-Adams State University sophomore Jackson Sayler, senior Brian Baum and CSU-Pueblo sophomore Ben Vaughan will also be faces familiar to Cusick as they placed, respectively, third (4:14.55), fourth (4:15.31) and eighth (4:17.86) inside the NPAC.
Earlier in the season, Cusick and Vaughan had gone an exciting 1-2 at CSM's Division II Invitational in Golden, with Cusick's 4:20.24 one one-hundredth faster than Vaughan inside Steinhauer Fieldhouse. (That time appears on the Orediggers' official website while the USTFCCCA's shows the 4:20.24 and its NCAA-calculated, undersized track/elevation-adjusted 4:08.60 equivalent as well as Vaughan's 4:20.25/4:08.61.)
Additionally, Cusick had also taken fourth at the RMAC's in the 800-meter run, posting a 1:54.70 after winning the Western State Colorado University Open in 1:56.06 the previous weekend (when he did not run the mile) in Gunnison.
Specializing in the 800 during her first collegiate season, WSCU freshman-and BHS alum-Jessica Cusick ended her indoor season at the Open with a fourth-place 2:26.16 as an 'unattached' competitor, and was not one of the 25 contending at CSC for the conference crown.
