As the ISU men’s track 4×400-meter relay team competes in the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday, senior runner Eljiah Braimah knows he would not be where he is without two things: his team and their personal faith.

Braimah said the team, which consists of him, Gabe Kimpson, Jared Lewis and fellow senior Jared Graham, met in the lockerroom and prayed before last weekend’s NCAA qualifying run at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center, something he directly attributes to their success.

“I really do attribute our success to that,” he said. “I know we’ve got coach [Steve Lynn] training us, but I really don’t see us if we take away the four of us getting together and just kind of bonding and praying like that, I don’t see us making it. It’s like we’re brothers.”

After setting a new school record time of 3 minutes, 37.09 seconds to qualify, the team is focused on doing the same thing at the NCAA meet. What makes their situation different from a normal event is the reliance each one of them has on each other. No one on the team has qualified for the NCAA Championships before, but have come together to create a situation coach Steve Lynn thinks is special.

“It’s the first time I’ve taken a relay team to nationals where I didn’t have an individual All-American on the team,” Lynn said. “I think it shows how hard these guys work and compete together.”

Lynn said when practice started in the fall, multiple spots were open for the team, and even those who didn’t know whether they would be on the team felt it could be the best 4×4 team in school history.

“The first time we did time trials back in October, right away the guys were like, ‘we’re going to break the school record, and we can be All-Americans,’ not even knowing who the mix was going to be for the guys on the team,” Lynn said.

After trying different mixes in fall practices and early meets during the season, Lewis, Graham and Braimah solidified positions, and Kimpson earned a spot by having good individual 400-meter run at the Iowa State Classic. They earned a provisional qualifying spot in the Classic with James Robinson on the team, and improved at the Big 12 Championships with Kimpson on the team before running the record-setting time last weekend to solidify their spot. Kimpson sustained an injury at practice this week, however, and Tony Stanfield will take his place in the lead leg.

To get a chance to compete for a championship is something Lewis, a junior competing in his first season after transferring from Northern Colorado, said is an opportunity to prove how good they are.

“You get to compete to be the best, it’s not just, ‘well we won at our track, or we won bragging rights’ like that,” he said. “We’d be number one.”

The team has the seventh best time in the nation going in, and will compete in the second section of timed finals against teams from Northern Iowa, Texas A&M and Oral Roberts, all teams they have already raced against this year. There are two more sections of timed finals with three teams in section one and four teams in section three. Four of the 11 teams that qualified are from the Big 12.

Despite having six teams ahead of them in the standings, Braimah has one goal in mind.

“The four of us all believe with God on our side, we just feel right now that nobody can stop us,” he said. “Each time we run, we cut time off of our relay time. I just really believe if we go there and execute, and do what needs to be done, I’m looking to come back with the one piece gold nugget.”