North Carolina State University Athletics
Emily Pritt Goes The Extra Mile
2/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track
Emily Pritt loves running the mile.
The redshirt freshman from North Canton, Ohio is already an accomplished cross country runner after earning All-American honors with a 17th-place finish this past fall. In 2008-09, Pritt finished seventh at the 2009 USA Junior Cross Country Championship to earn a spot on the USA Junior World Cross Country team.
She redshirted track as a freshman last year, and recently made her debut by competing in two meets this indoor season leading up to the ACC Indoor Championships that run Thursday until Saturday in Blacksburg, Va.
"The focus now is trying to help the team and score at the ACC meet," Pritt said before heading to Blacksburg. "My goal is to get to finals after my heat in the mile, and to make All-ACC. But more importantly if I do that I can score points for the team."
Pritt will have her chances in two events, the mile and 3,000 meters, though her focus - and her favorite - is the mile.
"The mile is my best event, even in high school it has always been my favorite event," Pritt said. "You basically do whatever the coaches think is the best fit for you in indoors. I'm a miler and I feel like I have always been about the mile. If I can be good at another race then I won't mind running it of course. I'm trying to be more versatile."
She hasn't had much of an issue with the transition from the cross country season into the indoor track season, setting a personal-best in the mile in her only race of that distance this year. Her time of 4:51.08 at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash., was just a few seconds off of an NCAA Indoor Provisional Qualifying mark and ranks ninth in the ACC heading into the Championships. For Pritt, qualifying for nationals is the ultimate goal.
"The focus for me during the indoor and outdoor track and field is to qualify for nationals," Pritt said. "I ran a personal-best in the mile out in Seattle, but for me that isn't good enough because it didn't get me to where I want to be, and that is at nationals."
With her conference races on the horizon, however, Pritt would like to make the finals and earn All-ACC honors, which would give the women's track and field team valuable points in the team standings.
"Championship races at conference are more of a tactical race, because you don't really go for qualifying times but rather to win the race," Pritt said. "For me, to place high in this final, I could end up getting a provisional mark because I'm only a few seconds away from it. We still have one more meet at the Armory Invite [in New York] where I could go for a qualifying mark after the ACC Championships, so the focus now is just on scoring at conference."
After the indoor season ends, Pritt will run in the 1,500m and 5,000m once the outdoor season starts, but don't expect much past the 5,000m, like maybe the 10,000m?
"Yeah... No," Pritt responds with a laugh. "Brittany [Tinsley] is the only one that I think anyone can convince to do it. I'm not. I'll tell some of the freshmen to do it before I will. I'll stick to the 5K [5,000m] being the longest I will go. Brittany loves it. It is more like cross country because you have to hold that tempo the whole race."
For the NC State track and field program, having Pritt's versatility and talent bodes well for the future in cross country and track.
Even if she refuses to run the 10k.
The redshirt freshman from North Canton, Ohio is already an accomplished cross country runner after earning All-American honors with a 17th-place finish this past fall. In 2008-09, Pritt finished seventh at the 2009 USA Junior Cross Country Championship to earn a spot on the USA Junior World Cross Country team.
She redshirted track as a freshman last year, and recently made her debut by competing in two meets this indoor season leading up to the ACC Indoor Championships that run Thursday until Saturday in Blacksburg, Va.
"The focus now is trying to help the team and score at the ACC meet," Pritt said before heading to Blacksburg. "My goal is to get to finals after my heat in the mile, and to make All-ACC. But more importantly if I do that I can score points for the team."
Pritt will have her chances in two events, the mile and 3,000 meters, though her focus - and her favorite - is the mile.
"The mile is my best event, even in high school it has always been my favorite event," Pritt said. "You basically do whatever the coaches think is the best fit for you in indoors. I'm a miler and I feel like I have always been about the mile. If I can be good at another race then I won't mind running it of course. I'm trying to be more versatile."
She hasn't had much of an issue with the transition from the cross country season into the indoor track season, setting a personal-best in the mile in her only race of that distance this year. Her time of 4:51.08 at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash., was just a few seconds off of an NCAA Indoor Provisional Qualifying mark and ranks ninth in the ACC heading into the Championships. For Pritt, qualifying for nationals is the ultimate goal.
"The focus for me during the indoor and outdoor track and field is to qualify for nationals," Pritt said. "I ran a personal-best in the mile out in Seattle, but for me that isn't good enough because it didn't get me to where I want to be, and that is at nationals."
With her conference races on the horizon, however, Pritt would like to make the finals and earn All-ACC honors, which would give the women's track and field team valuable points in the team standings.
"Championship races at conference are more of a tactical race, because you don't really go for qualifying times but rather to win the race," Pritt said. "For me, to place high in this final, I could end up getting a provisional mark because I'm only a few seconds away from it. We still have one more meet at the Armory Invite [in New York] where I could go for a qualifying mark after the ACC Championships, so the focus now is just on scoring at conference."
After the indoor season ends, Pritt will run in the 1,500m and 5,000m once the outdoor season starts, but don't expect much past the 5,000m, like maybe the 10,000m?
"Yeah... No," Pritt responds with a laugh. "Brittany [Tinsley] is the only one that I think anyone can convince to do it. I'm not. I'll tell some of the freshmen to do it before I will. I'll stick to the 5K [5,000m] being the longest I will go. Brittany loves it. It is more like cross country because you have to hold that tempo the whole race."
For the NC State track and field program, having Pritt's versatility and talent bodes well for the future in cross country and track.
Even if she refuses to run the 10k.
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