BLACKSBURG, Va. — Qualifying for the NCAA national outdoor track and field championships is an experience unlike any other for college athletes — more so when the athlete in question is a true freshman.
Nick Plant has taken a monolithic step forward since he traded the Canfield Cardinals red for the Virginia Tech Hokies maroon. But, if you asked him about nationals following his first college indoor meet back in the winter, his outlook would have been a bit different.
After competing unattached for the cross country season to finishing 11th as an unattached competitor at the Hokies’ indoor season-opening meet in January, Plant ended up finding a groove and turned into one of the best middle-distance runners in Division I by June.
“It really caught me, it made me rethink everything,” Plant said. “I had to take a step back, just look at what else I could change to get back with the competition.
“Recovery, our coach makes recovery one of the bigger things that we should take care of. I think that was it, just doing everything right, making sure I get the sleep and eating properly. Earlier in the season, my legs were just dead every day, so I had to make sure I fixed that.”
Virginia Tech’s men’s track and field team won the Atlantic Coast Conference indoor title, with help from Plant who was on the Hokies first-place men’s distance medley relay team. As the third leg of the group, Plant came close to recording his personal best outdoor 800-meter time during the race.
Plant was beginning to find that mojo that made him of the best runners in Ohio during his high school career. He was a two-time Ohio Division I state champion at Canfield and his Ohio high school all-time record in the 800 meters was broken by United’s Kaleb Nastari two weeks ago.
“I was really happy about that, at the beginning of the year I wasn’t running anywhere near that time,” said Plant. “It gave me a lot of confidence knowing that we were competitive as a team.”
Head cross country and distance coach Eric Johannigmeier felt that Plant handled some of the challenges that freshmen face, like more difficult training or living away from home.
“Every freshman is different, but it does take time to adapt. I think what Nick did well, was when he didn’t run his fastest as he would have liked to in his opening 800 meter, he didn’t panic,” Johannigmeier said. “Rather, he stayed the course and as time went on, he adapted to the training better. He got used to being a student-athlete at Virginia Tech, and he’s a competitive athlete.
“We knew at some point he was going to rise up to the level of his competition.”
Plant admits he’s more comfortable with the unpredictably outdoor season can bring, especially in regards to the weather. For him, a less-than-stellar indoor campaign brought some of that hunger back too.
“There was a lot more I wanted for the outdoor season,” said Plant.
Johannigmeier adds. “I think there’s athletes that handle adversity well and Nick is one of those athletes. It’s a small adversity in some ways, if the weather isn’t great, he’s not going to let it phase him and he’s going to go out there and execute a race plan and compete. That’s difficult to do, not everyone can do that very well, but he’s shown as a true freshman that he can do that.”
At the ACC outdoor meet, Plant fell behind early on the inside during the 800-meter finals, but moved to second on lap two, before taking the lead on the last corner of the track. His time of 1:47:41 was good enough to advance him to the NCAA East regionals.
In Jacksonville, Plant recorded a 1:49.21, just .01 seconds faster than Georgia freshman Will Sumner, the eventual national champion. Besides winning the quarterfinal round and claiming the NCAA East crown, Plant moved on to his biggest obstacle yet — the NCAA national meet in Austin.
“The better competition, it makes it a lot more fun, knowing there’s people out there that can beat you, that’s it’s going to be challenging,” Plant said. “I never go into a race wanting to lose, so it helps me push myself.”
Already having accomplished so much, Plant said he made sure to take in the aura that the national meet had to off and also wanted to thank everyone from Canfield that reached out to him after his big meets.
“Especially looking at where I came from in indoor and cross country, knowing it wasn’t going my way, and then all the work I put in to make nationals outdoor, I was really excited,” said Plant. “I really wanted to soak it in, just watching everyone else at the meet was something the three days after my race. So I wanted to take as much in as I could.”
Plant finished 12th (1:49.17) during the 800-meter semifinals, earning himself second-team All-American honors. At the end of the day, Johannigmeier was thrilled with the way Plant ended his season.
“To finish 12th in the country as a true freshman is a really nice start to his college career. I don’t know that he was satisfied, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing either,” Johannigmeier said. “He sets pretty ambitious goals, rightfully so, and he’s achieved a pretty high level, so we’re very excited to see what he’ll do down the road.”
