May 27, 2009
By Elaine Stefanou
Maryland Athletics Media Relations
COLLEGE PARK, Md.
- Most people would not consider sprinting 400 meters around a track and jumping over 30-inch hurdles a good time. However, University of Maryland track star
Kiani Profit is not your average person.
The 400-meter hurdles is one of the hardest track and field events, mainly because the runner must sprint the whole distance. Profit will face stiff competition in the event this weekend when she competes in the NCAA East Regional Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
"I'm not really scared," said Profit. "I know I have to go against good competitors, but it's kind of motivation. The faster people you run with, the faster you're going to run.
"I am kind of nervous about it, but at the same time I know I have been training well and that I am just going to run with the fast people. Eventually I will get to that status where people will say I'm one of the fastest right now."
To guarantee a trip to the NCAA Nationals in the 400-meter hurdles, Profit must finish among the top five at the Regional meet.
"I think what she has is the heart of a lion," said Maryland head coach Andrew Valmon. "She trains really hard, she is fit. She wants it, and she wants to put every effort into being good"
Making it to Nationals may not be much of a problem for Profit, because she is one of the best this season at what she does. Profit is currently ranked 18th nationally in the 400-meter hurdles and is 10th in the Eastern Region.
"Hurdling is what my motivation goes to," she said. "The hurdles make me happy. Doing hurdles is exciting to me. I think that's the reason why I'm so good at them because it's something that's close to my heart. My brother hurdles, everybody in my family runs hurdles."
"She has been getting in some good work with her hurdle coaches," said Valmon. "Her focus has been on the hurdles thus far, especially the long hurdles. But I think she is definitely gearing up and peaking at the right time, and is getting what she needs from her coaches."
Since the 2008 track and field season, there has been dramatic improvement in her times. Profit's best time in the 400-meter hurdles a year ago was 59.86 seconds. She ran 59.77 at the Pepsi Florida Relays in April 2009, but cut more than a second off her career-best in both the preliminaries (58.68) and final (58.16) at the ECAC meet in mid-May.
"I have always done hurdles. When I got to high school, we had 300 hurdles and I really liked doing long hurdles. I got better at the long hurdles than the short hurdles, so I just cling to them automatically," said Profit.
Profit's prep career was at Muir High School in Pasadena, Calif. She attended Georgia Tech directly from high school, and transferred to Maryland prior to her first season of competition.
Profit believed she did so well in the 400 hurdles at the ECAC's when she did not do as well as she wanted in the heptathlon. "I just put it all in the hurdles," she said, despite scoring 5,096 points to finish second at the ECAC meet.
Being the second-fastest Maryland student-athlete in history is not good enough for Profit. She wants to be on top and is chasing the school record of 57.73 set at the 2002 ECAC Outdoor by Thema Napier.
"I am actually trying to get the record," said Profit. "If I'm close enough to it I'm going to try to get it."
Valmon agrees that Profit can get the record. "Yes. I think that there is definitely room for her to do that. I think that she can get the top time."
Terps Sending Seven to NCAA East Regionals
Profit is one of seven Maryland student-athletes heading to Greensboro, N.C., this weekend for the NCAA East Regionals. Her first appearance on the track at North Carolina A&T University will be on Friday evening in the last of eight preliminary heats in the 400 hurdles.
Also ranked among the top 10 in their event is senior Michelle Fedrick, whose 53.22 mark in the women's open 400 places her sixth in the seeding at the East Regional. Fedrick, who has had four marks under 54 seconds this season, placed second at the ACC Outdoor and third at the ECAC Championships this spring.
Senior Chanel Williams set the school record with a mark of 13.71 in the 100-meter hurdles and will run in the fourth of five heats in that event on Friday evening. Williams also hit the regional-qualifying standard in the long hurdles, but has chosen to concentrate on the 100 hurdles at regionals.
Junior Kristin Reed will compete Saturday in the next-to-last event of the regionals - the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She had a hand-timed mark of 10:41.7 at the Bison Outdoor Classic to shatter the previous school record by 20 seconds.
Senior Ashley Williams has qualified for regionals in the women's shot put, which also will be contested with trials and finals on Saturday. Williams' season-best of 47-8 came with a second-place finish at the Mason Outdoor Invitational.
On the men's side, freshman Dwight Barbiasz will be seeking a berth at the Outdoor Nationals to mirror his appearance at the NCAA Indoor. Barbiasz has had one of the best freshman seasons in Terrapin history with his third-place finish and All-America performance in the high jump. He comes into Friday afternoon's competition seeded fourth in the region and 11th nationally with his season-best of 7-2.25 at the Penn Relays.
Junior transfer Legonn Haskins is qualified for the Terps in the men's 110-meter hurdles, having hit the qualifying mark with his 14.29 clocking at the ECAC Outdoor. He will run in the last of five qualifying heats on Friday.
Finals in all running events will be held on Saturday.
