Although the basketball version of “March Madness” is still a few weeks away, another version of madness takes place this weekend at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center, when Iowa State hosts one of a few last chance NCAA Championships qualifier meets that take place across the nation.

The indoor track version has all the suspense of the basketball version as runners on the “bubble” try to run a few precious tenths, or maybe even a couple of seconds, faster in order to move themselves up the selection ladder.

The Cyclones are not short of bubble contenders either, with only senior Rebecca Williams all but guaranteed a spot in the championships in the 60-meter hurdle event, having a provisional qualifying time that should secure her a spot, according to sprints and hurdles coach Scott Roberts. Williams will take the weekend off and watch as the rest of her teammates try to run fast enough to join her March 9 and 10 at the University of Arkansas.

One of the Cyclones with the best chance of joining Williams is redshirt freshman Lisa Koll. Koll is currently ranked 18th in the nation in the 5,000-meter run. She has already set a school record in the event and finished second in the conference meet.

Head coach Dick Lee thinks Koll has a good shot to qualify, but will have to run her fastest time of the season to do it.

“To be in the top 15, she will probably have to run three to four seconds faster over that three miles,” Lee said.

Another Cyclone firmly on the bubble is Agata Kosuda. Kosuda, who has only participated in two meets this year, is ranked 18th in the nation in the triple jump. She is a former conference champion and although her current ranking may be good enough to qualify, she hopes to improve on her mark this weekend and get off the bubble.

Jenna Caffrey also hopes to become one of the few freshmen to qualify for nationals. She is ranked 39th in the country and will have to take at least two-tenths of a second of her previous best to hope to get in. Although Caffrey wants to qualify, she said running the provisional time and having the opportunity to qualify is exciting in itself.

“It’s more than expected hitting the provisional time, so that’s exciting.” Caffrey said. “But there is still a ways to go to get to nationals.”

How qualifying for the NCAA Track Championships works

If there were ever an exact science, the NCAA did not use it to select who will run at NCAA Nationals.

“It’s interesting; it’s not an exact science,” said sprints coach Scott Roberts.

The NCAA sets an automatic time and a provisional time in order to qualify. If athletes run the automatic time, they qualify, but the automatic time is set so high that only a few athletes will reach it. The remainder of the field is filled by runners who have run the provisional time.

This is where it gets confusing. Each event has a minimum numbers of athletes who will compete – this year the number is 14. No event has a maximum number of athletes that can participate in the event, but the NCAA has a maximum number of athletes that can participate in the championships.

If a runner is ranked 18th, such as ISU freshman Lisa Koll, she might qualify with her current time, but is not guaranteed a spot.

To make matters more confusing, if the same athlete has qualified in more than one event, he or she only counts as one runner and not two, leaving another spot open for another athlete. So the NCAA sets an X number of athletes for the whole meet, but not a maximum for an individual event.

So, the 5000-meter run can theoretically have 24 participants, while the 60-meter hurdles may only have 18. To sum it up, there is a maximum number for the meet as a whole and a minimum number for each event, but no maximum number for each event.

– Brian Guillaume