Junior triple jumper Luke Plummer and senior high jumper Tayler Fettig will be the two athletes the Wildcats send to compete in the National Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The championship meet is being held at the University of Alabama in Huntsville at CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.

The top 16 competitors in the country were invited to the national competition. Plummer enters nationals ranked tenth in the triple jump, with a mark of 49-5 ft./in.Plummer said he has a chance to grasp All-America honors.

“I’m just excited for the experience… it has been a long journey,” Plummer said.

It has been a long indoor season for Plummer, and with outdoor season just around the corner, he is striving to keep his momentum and carry it over to the spring.

“For Luke, I think if he is able to go and reproduce the efforts that he did at the conference meet, then he’ll make it into the finals,” Head Coach Kevin Adkisson said.

Adkisson knows how hard Plummer has worked to get to this point, and knows he will be up to the challenge of competing against the best of the best in the country.When Plummer is competing this weekend, he says that he is going to try and he says that he is going to try his best, no matter the results. One thing that is for sure, he doesn’t like losing.

“Any meet, I want to win. I would like to get top eight, which is All-American. I’d like to get to the finals. Just being there will be good enough in the big picture, but I want to win,” Plummer said.

Plummer is scheduled to compete on Saturday March 14 in Birmingham, Alabama.

The other team member that will be joining Plummer at Nationals is Fettig, who is currently tied with five other jumpers at 12th in the nation at a mark of 5-8 ft./in.Fettig has been improving her marks all season, and is in a good position to improve even further on a national level before the outdoor season starts.

“It’s a blessing, and it’s pretty awesome. I don’t know what else to say,” Fettig said.

After fighting through a few injuries at the start this indoor season, Fettig has put together a great run, and is now striving to be a national champion.

Adkisson has coached Fettig for years now and he has come to know her competitive fire. She has grown not only as an athlete, but also as a person.

“It’s been a little rougher year. This year has been a struggle health-wise. She’s been a trooper, battling through those injuries. It shows the quality of her athletic abilities that she was still was able to put up marks to get her into the national meet again,” Adkisson said.

Competing in Nationals has always been a personal goal of Fettig’s, and next weekend will be her opportunity to accomplish what she has been working so hard to achieve. She says that she isn’t setting an agenda; she just wants to do what she can.

“I’m just going to go do the best I can do. I don’t want to set a benchmark, I just want to go out and do my best,” Fettig said.

Adkisson is pleased with the work and determination of both Plummer and Fettig, and as they strive for All-American honors this weekend, he knows that they have accomplished so much, regardless of how they finish.After the National Indoor Track and Field Championships, Plummer and Fettig will turn around and start working again to make it to the outdoor Nationals competitions in the spring.

Although it seems hard, Adkisson thinks that the two athletes will be more than ready for outdoor to start.

“They are both great representatives of our program. They work hard, and they’re good athletes. No matter what they do, we’re going to get their best effort. We really can’t be too concerned about what we’re going to get from them,” Adkisson said.