A little is always better than none.

The men's track and field team qualified one person for this past weekend's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis.

In the Cyclone Invitational on March 6, senior miler Aidan O'Reilly ran a second-place 4:01.9 to qualify for nationals.

O'Reilly then finished ninth in the mile at NCAAs with a time of 4:06.33 in the final on Saturday. He won his heat on Friday with a time of 4:04.81.

"The (qualifying) heat went very well," O'Reilly said. "I felt I was in control. It went better than expected."

But the opposite occurred in the final, in which 10 runners participated.

"I committed tactical suicide," O'Reilly said. "It was a very slow pace. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, and I was caught in the middle of it. I was more or less forced to run in lane 3 for part of the race. (The pace) was very fast in the last quarter and I didn't have the legs for it."

"He went out too slow and he couldn't move out because of the crowd," Coach Harry Groves said. "You need a lot of lucky moves in a race like that, and he couldn't get any. Every time he tried to make a move, he got banged around."

Also participating at the Cyclone Invitational were jumper Antonio Davis, runner Andy Scott and pole vaulter Mason Ternay, but they did not qualify for NCAAs. Davis leaped 24-2, good for fifth place. Scott ran 1:51.06 in the 800 meters, a season best. Ternay finished 10th in the pole vault with a leap of 16-10.

"Andy and Antonio had good meets (in Iowa State)," Groves said. "So all was not lost there despite only one getting one qualifier."

The team now heads to the great outdoors to prepare for the opening of the outdoor season, which seems to be more of a favorite to the team than being cooped up in the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex.

"I love competing outside," Ternay said. "The fresh air and the environment helps me vaulting."

"I much more enjoy running outside," hurdler/runner Kevin Cripanuk said. "The bigger track is what I enjoy most."