One week before the Big 12 Indoor Championships, three letters loom large in Texas track coach Bubba Thornton's mind. DMR.
To most, the three letters are meaningless. But for Thornton and the Longhorns, they make up the main focus this weekend at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Distance Medley Relay, or DMR as it is known throughout the sport, is the event Thornton will concentrate on this weekend. The Longhorns DRM team, who won last week in New York (their first race of the year), will look to improve upon its inaugural win by reaching the NCAA automatic qualifying mark this weekend.
"We hoped to qualify for the National Championship in the DRM last week. We ran well, but didn't make the automatic qualifying standard," Thornton said. "Last week, being the first race of the year we ran, maybe we were not as sharp as we need to be. So we are going to run again this week, and get where we need to be."
The DRM is like a typical relay race - four runners each run a leg of the race, exchanging a baton with a teammate after completing their leg.
But that is where the similarities end.
In the DRM, unlike other relays, each of the four members runs a different distance. Longhorn junior Kyle Miller starts out the race with a 1,200-meter leg, followed by the 400-meter leg run by junior Tevan Everett. Next is junior Jacob Hernandez with the 800-meter leg, and the race is finished with 1,600 meters from Leo Manzano.
The Texas DRM team, which won last week, clocked in at 9:39.92, the fourth-fastest time of any team this NCAA season but nearly six seconds off the NCAA automatic standard of 9 minutes, 39.92 seconds.
Thornton believes his team can meet that mark at this weekend's Tyson Invitational.
"This is a great meet, because things we need this weekend are set up to happen there. The teams we need to run against in the DRM are going to be there," Thornton said. "LSU and Arkansas, two of the top teams, are both going to be there, and they will push us to run well. That will help us get a great time - hopefully a NCAA automatic qualifying time."
Thornton sees his DMR team as a big piece to winning not only a Big 12 title next week, but competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships next month. Because of the important role the unique race plays in Texas' championship hopes, Thornton is putting extra focus on the DMR this weekend.
Thornton believes that if his DMR can get an NCAA automatic time this weekend, then not only will it have a great chance at winning the Big 12 indoor title next week, but the other relay teams will benefit greatly.
"If we can get qualified this weekend in the DMR, we don't have to send them to try to qualify at the last chance meet, and instead we can focus on our 4-by-400 relay," Thornton said. "That will give us a good shot in both relays, because we can send our 4-by-400 team to last chance meet in Iowa, where the top 10 relay teams in the nation will be. Those teams running in Iowa will be the teams running at the NCAA. We want to be one of those teams."
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