The RoundHouse | 5/24/2018 12:37:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
Wichita State's Austin Corley will do his pushups and sit-ups the day of the race, warm up, say a short prayer and, as he settles into the starting blocks for the 400-meter hurdles, tell himself he belongs in the race.
 
"Then it's time to run," he said. "It's important to have a routine before you race."
 
Corley runs on Thursday evening (6:30 p.m.) in the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, Calif., making his third appearance in the meet that qualifies runners for the NCAA Championships. As a freshman, he finished 30th with a time of 52.68 seconds and didn't run with confidence. Wichita State sprints coach John Wise told him so after the meet. His personal trainer in Kansas City reinforced that notion during the summer.
 
"I did not compete well at all," Corley said. "There's a lot of people I've worked with through the years that have basically told me I deserved to be there. Not being arrogant. Not being cocky. Knowing you deserve to be there. I make sure I tell myself I deserve to be here. I have the capability of running with these guys."
 
Corley, a redshirt sophomore from Adrian, Mo., enters Thursday's race with more reason for confidence than ever before. 
 
He is prepared for the tense atmosphere of NCAA competition and the feeling of competing without teammates to lean on. The top athletes from big-name schools are no longer mysterious; the crowd and venues part of the backdrop. The change from the emphasis on team scores in the conference meet to individual performances is familiar.
 
"You'll see a lot of first-time athletes struggle," Wise said. "There's no margin for error. It's just a different atmosphere. The only way you can do it is to go through it."
 
Corley sped past another mental block when he won the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship earlier this month in Cincinnati. He set a conference record with a time of 50.07 seconds to defeat Houston's Amere Lattin, the two-time defending champion. 
 
"I wasn't favored to win at all," Corley said. "Every time I've been in the NCAAs, I've had to race against him and he's beaten me."
 
More proof he belongs.
 
"Going into the race, kind of being overlooked, not really as a threat – it was nice to win and show that Wichita State's here to compete," Corley said.
 
Corley enters the race ranked No. 7 nationally with his time of 50.07. Teammate Isaac Poe, with a top time of 51.46, is also in the 48-man field. Twenty-four hurdlers advance from Thursday to Friday's quarterfinals. The top 12 advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., in June, joined by 12 from the East Preliminaries for a 24-man field.
 
Wise planned Corley's season to peak late in the spring with these NCAA meets in mind. The conference meet presented a high point, not the ultimate goal.
 
"There's so much emotion in the conference meet," Wise said. "Then as you get to this, it's more of an individual thing where you have to get yourself refocused pretty quickly."
 
Corley's time of 50.07 ranks second at Wichita State and a similar performance is likely strong enough to advance to Eugene. The school record is 49.60, set by Viktors Lacis in 2001. 
 
"He doesn't talk about it a lot, but I know it is something we've talked about," Wise said. "When you're at 50.07, you're just a sliver away from breaking 50. That would be a heck of a deal."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.