Calm & Cool; Like She's Been There Before

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – In a way, Quiara Wheeler has been in training for this moment her entire life.

Wheeler, a Central Michigan senior, will step onto indoor track & field's biggest and brightest stage against the best of the best on Thursday when she competes in the NCAA Indoor Championships at Randal Tyson Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas.

Wheeler will compete in the weight throw and she is ranked 14^th with a program-record toss of 21.51 meters. There are 16 competitors in the field. The top eight finishers earn First Team All-America honors; those finishing ninth-16^th are second-teamers.

There won't be any fans in attendance due to COVID, but there will be plenty of pressure. There always is at the pinnacle.

"I really appreciate the big crowds, but when I'm in the circle it's literally like blank," said Wheeler, a Flint native. "I don't see or hear anything until after I step out after the throw. I do enjoy the energy; the energy helps me stay calm. It also helps excite me, but I think I'll be fine as long as I focus."

It's been more than fine for Wheeler since she came to CMU out of Grand Blanc High School. She competed in the NCAA East Preliminary in the hammer throw in 2019, an experience that most certainly will help come Thursday when she steps into the Tyson Center when the weight throw begins at 5:30 p.m. She is also coming off a first-place finish at the MAC Championships, where she went in as the No. 1 seed and won the event by nearly 1 meter.

What also should help is Wheeler's lifelong experience with martial arts, a family tradition. The Wheeler family owns two martial arts studios in the Flint area, and Wheeler – the youngest of Jeffrey and TC's three children – was wearing a dobok before she was 4 years old.

It wasn't long before she was partaking in, and winning, competitions, including the biennial world championships in North Carolina. Her resumé includes two age-group world titles, one world runner-up, and multiple national crowns.

"It's helped more than people realize because martial arts, it focuses on way more than the fighting and punching and kicking aspects," Wheeler said. "It teaches me a lot about discipline, humility."

That translates well to track & field in general and the weight throw in particular. It's an event that requires explosiveness, concentration, and the ability to generate speed while staying balanced as a thrower spins in the circle.

Basic tenants of both martial arts and the weight throw are repetition and discipline, and the regimen and precision required in both are complementary.

"You go into the ring and it's just you by yourself and you've got to have that intrinsic trust and confidence in what you're doing," CMU throws coach Zachery Ball said. "She does a great job of finding the zone and visualizing what she wants to accomplish.

"The No. 1 thing is work ethic. It's a pretty hard grind to do what we do. You've got to be strong, you have to be fast, you have to have balance. It's trying to put all of that into one to be the perfect animal if you want to call it that."

Clearly, Wheeler has made it work. Her 21.51-meter toss this season broke her own previous mark (19.75) by 1.76 meters, a significant leap. In five meets during the 2021 indoor season, Wheeler has never thrown less than 21.05 meters, meaning that any throw she made in 2021 bettered her former program standard.

It helps that Wheeler is surrounded daily by teammates who comprise a traditionally strong aspect of the Chippewa track & field program. Teammates, such as Marissa Dunn and Maya Bennett, have played an integral role, Ball said.

"I truly believe that training partners are one of the most important things a successful athlete can have," Ball said. "She would not have gotten here without them. They push each other, they work each other hard and bring each other up when they're down."

The top throw, 23.24 meters, heading into Thursday's competition is held by Ole Miss thrower Jasmine Mitchell. Obviously, Wheeler will have to exceed her career best by a significant margin to win. A top-eight finish – and with it First Team All-America honors – is certainly a realistic possibility for Wheeler.

But she isn't thinking about numbers.

"I don't really think about marks," she said. "If you say you want to throw a certain number of feet or meters, potentially that can harm you because all you're thinking about is a number. That's when you get in your head and you'll never reach that number you want because all you're focused on is that."

Should Wheeler make it to the podium, a spot to which she is accustomed no matter the sport, she will feel right at home.

"As I told her yesterday, she hasn't lost a meet this year, so why stop now?" Ball said.

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Players Mentioned

Maya Bennett

Marissa Dunn

Quiara Wheeler