Concordia’s Nate Moses Set to Compete at the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials
EUGENE, Ore.—Coming off an NAIA national championship in the discus, Concordia University junior Nate Moses will complete in his specialty at the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials at Hayward Field.
Moses will enter the meet ranked 13th out of 24 qualifiers with his season-best and school-record mark of 197 feet, 5 inches (60.17m).
Moses will compete in the qualifying round of the discus at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, June 25. The top 12 performers will move on to finals which will be held at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday, June 28 for the right to represent the United State at the Olympic Games held in London later in the year.
Using his school-record mark, Moses claimed the NAIA national championship in the discus by more than 16 feet. Prior to nationals, Moses set the Cascade Collegiate Conference meet record with a 180-10 (55.11m) in helping Concordia to its seventh straight league crown.
In addition to his duties in the discus, Moses was an All-American in the indoor and outdoor shot put. Moses registered a season-best 55-9 1/4 (17.00m) effort in the shot during the indoor season for a fourth-place finish at nationals. He went on to place seventh in the shot at the outdoor championships for his third All-American honor of the year.
Nate Moses Interview - June 20, 2012
Talk about what you felt when you knew you hit the US Trials qualifying mark:
To be honest, I wasn’t too excited when I hit the Olympic Trials “B” standard qualifying mark. Even though it is a great accomplishment for a junior in college I knew that I would still have to be in the top 24 in the U.S. in order to make the Trials, so I kept working to get the best mark I could for the season.
How has training been since NAIA nationals?
Training has been very hard. Since we peaked for nationals there is an automatic low that you will go through afterwards. I went through that low the first week and then my body started feeling great. Once I started feeling good, Coach Mac (Wilkins) and I decided to do a mini training cycle in order to re-peak for the Trials. My body has not been feeling 100 percent but I am confident that the training we are doing will have me feeling loose and relaxed for the competition. The great thing about training lately is that my average throw in competition has gone from 180 feet to 190 feet which is a sign that a big throw is about to come.
What kind of approach are you going to take when you get there? Do you think you will be nervous? If so, how do you convert that into useful energy?
I get nervous just like every other athlete, but like I learned from Professor Joel Schuldheisz in Sports Psychology, it is not the nerves that will bring your demise but viewing the nerves as debilitative instead of facilitative. I try my best to be calm and positive about the energy that I get from being nervous and instead keep it pined up inside until the right moment where I can use it to unleash a big throw.
Has Coach Wilkins talked to you about these ‘big’ meets? What has his message been?
Simply put, his message has been that, “You will be ready and I trust that when the time comes you will throw what you need to throw.” The goal is not to see this as the Olympic Trials and one of the stepping stones to my ultimate goal in life, but view it as just another meet...just another meet that thousands of people will be watching you in the stadium…no big deal! I just have to stay focused, nothing but focus.