Sharika Nelvis is Arkansas State’s most decorated female track and field athlete, which is even more impressive when one considers the start she got off to in college.
The senior from Memphis won the program’s first female national title two months ago in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She is a 23-time Sun Belt Conference individual champion, a two-time first-team All-American and last week was named the Sun Belt’s top female athlete in any sport.
“You don’t want to limit expectations for her,” ASU Coach Jim Patchell said. “She always exceeds them.”
Nelvis won’t limit her own expectations, either, not with two more chances left in a college career that began five years ago at a school that no longer fields a track and field program.
Nelvis goes into the NCAA West Preliminaries meet Thursday in Fayetteville with the second-best qualifying time in the 100-meter hurdles at 12.67 seconds, and she expects to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships that will be held June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore.
Winning an outdoor title is about all Nelvis has left to accomplish in a college career that didn’t start as smoothly as she would have liked four years ago.
ASU was Nelvis’ first choice when it came to attending college because of her relationship with volunteer assistant coach Jason Brooks, who also was from Memphis. But because she didn’t want to take a summer class immediately after graduating from Memphis Northside High School in 2009, she didn’t qualify to attend ASU and was forced to go to a junior college.
Nelvis headed south to Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Miss., where she was going to take the classes she needed, run track and eventually head to an NCAA Division I school. But that plan was quickly re-routed.
“I was there all of a week,” Nelvis said. “I only went to two days of classes and I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ ”
So Nelvis withdrew from classes, called Brooks and asked if her spot on ASU’s team was still available.
It was, but with a caveat.
Since Nelvis had enrolled at the junior college and withdrew before earning her associate’s degree, she wasn’t eligible to join ASU’s team for a full year. The deadline to enroll in classes that fall had passed, so she waited until January 2010 to enroll and couldn’t practice with the team until the following fall.
Nelvis knew the coaching staff and knew her eventual teammates, but she didn’t travel with them to meets or practice with them during the week. She didn’t even use ASU’s track. Instead, she found other areas on campus to train because she didn’t want anyone to think she was spending time with the team.
“It was really lonely,” said Nelvis, who learned later that Southwest Mississippi had dropped its track and field program. “I didn’t want to sit out and not do anything. So I was just like, ‘This is the sacrifice. I have to be lonely right now.’ ”
Nelvis joined ASU’s track and field team in the fall of 2010 and was named the Sun Belt Conference’s top freshman for the indoor season and eventually qualified for the NCAA preliminary meet.
The following fall, Patchell arrived from Campbell University to take over ASU’s men’s and women’s programs. As he pored over times and measurements while trying to learn more about the athletes he inherited, Nelvis stood out.
“Then we did some testing,” Patchell said. “When you test a standing long jump and she’s jumping farther than some of the guys on the team, there’s obviously a lot of natural talent there.”
Nelvis’ times steadily improved as well. As a sophomore, she finished sixth in the 60 meters in the NCAA Indoor meet and set school outdoor records in the 100, 200 and the 100 hurdles while winning the first of her six awards (three indoor, three outdoor) as the most outstanding female track and field athlete in the conference.
Two years later, she is one of the top hurdlers in the country with one national championship on her resume. Nelvis won the 60 hurdles in 7.93 seconds March 15 at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., a race so close that she didn’t even know until well after the finish line whether she or Baylor’s Tiffani McReynolds had won.
Her chances in the 100 hurdles at the NCAA West Preliminaries and the NCAA Outdoor Championships are just as good. Her time of 12.67 seconds is four-hundredths of a second behind McReynolds, who also will compete in Fayetteville this weekend.
Patchell isn’t counting out Nelvis this weekend or next month in Eugene. Nor will he bet against her in her next venture, which is making the 2016 U.S. Olympic team.
“She’s a world-class athlete,” Patchell said. “She’s run times that could make the Olympic final. She’s right there running those times. She should have a good career there.”
At a glance
NAME Sharika Nelvis SCHOOL Arkansas State YEAR Senior HOMETOWN Memphis EVENTS 100 meters, 100-meter hurdles NOTEWORTHY Won an NCAA indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles in March. … Named Sun Belt Conference’s most outstanding female track athlete in 2012, 2013 and 2014 at the indoor and outdoor meets. … First-team All-American in 2013 (100-meter hurdles) and 2014 (60-meter hurdles). … ASU indoor record holder in 55 meters, 60-meter hurdles, 200 meters and long jump, and the outdoor record holder in the 100 meters, 100-meter hurdles, 200 meters and long jump.
Track & field
NCAA WEST PRELIMS
WHAT One of two qualifying meets for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which will be held June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore. WHEN Thursday-Saturday WHERE John McDonnell Field, Fayetteville TICKETS arkansasrazorbacks.com