Similar to his teammates, junior track and field sprinter Brad Michael has had a long journey from the beginning of the season to the Big Sky Championships.

Michael was one of the many student-athletes to compete in Flagstaff, Arizona. “I did pretty good,” Michael said. “I did better in [the preliminary rounds], I ran a 47.17.” Michael’s performance was the second best time in the preliminary rounds. Michael also now ranks third in school history for the 400-meter event.

Men’s head coach Stan Kerr thought Michael did his best in Arizona. “I think Brad did an outstanding job,” Kerr said. “He ran a tactically intelligent preliminary race, he put himself into the finals as the No. 2 seed.”

According to Michael, he did not do as well as he would have liked during the final round, on May 17, due to an accident that occurred at the beginning of the race. “I didn’t do as well because at the start, my block slipped and the judges didn’t call us back,” Michael said. “So I had to try to play catch up the whole way.”

Kerr witnessed this situation at the meet as well. “The starters missed his block slipping,” Kerr said. “I’m still baffled on how four starters could miss a guy’s block slipping. We don’t criticize the officials, it’s just phenomenally unfortunate that they missed that call.”

Michael ended up in sixth place in the 400-meter event due to the start of the race with a time of 48.59. During the same day Michael joined up with senior Collin Green, senior Kramer Green and freshman Austin Upmeyer to participate in the 4×400 relay.

“Our time wasn’t what we wanted, but we were pretty happy with it,” Michael said. “We put a lot of hard work in.”

Michael’s 4×400 relay team finished with a time of 3:15.08 to come in sixth place.

Michael focused on sharpening his skills in order the to prepare for the Big Sky Championships. “Because it [was] at [Northern Arizona University], NAU is at 7,000-feet, so there’s high elevation,” Michael said. “You had to hydrate a lot and prepare your body to take all the damage that you put into it.”

Michael described the experience of how he felt after racing at such high elevation. “You feel fast, but when you get done racing you feel a lot more tired,” Michael said. “So I tried to get a lot more sleep and be way more hydrated than per usual.”

Michael stated that the track and field team arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona, on May 14 where they had the chance to do workouts in the elevation in order to grow accustomed to the environment during the Big Sky meet.

Leading up to the Big Sky Championships, Michael had one favorite moment this season that will always stick with him. “By far, the best highlight so far this season would be the California trip,” Michael said. “Especially when we ran at the Long Beach Invite, when the 4×400 [relay team] won. We set a season [personal record], and we were ranked second going into conference.”

Michael also overcame adversity during the season on his road to the Big Sky Championships. “The biggest obstacles were just being exhausted from training since, I think, September and also working in the summer,” Michael said.

Kerr also mentioned what he will be working on with Michael in the near future, which included keeping Brad focused as a senior next year. “A lot of athletes get senioritis, it is a hard thing to do Division I track for four years,” Kerr said. “Brad has just done an outstanding job, he’s a very motivated guy so it makes my job easier.”

Kerr will also work more with Brad on his leadership skills. “He’ll be in another year as team captain,” Kerr said. “We got another freshman class coming in next year.” Kerr stated that an important thing that Brad needs to do as captain of sprints and hurdles, is to continue to help the freshman athletes get situated with the team.

Michael is currently looking towards the future of what might happen for the rest of the season. “As of right now, I’m on the bubble to make it to the regional track meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas,” Michael said. “If I make that, I’ll continue training until next week. If I don’t then I’m going to take a few weeks off and then start doing some light distance work to prepare myself for when we come back for August and September for practices.”