There's little that outgoing senior Courtney Jaworksi hasn't accomplished in his four years on Penn's track team. And having just earned All-American honors for the second straight year, the only thing left for him to do before he closes the book on his historic career is to win at Nationals.
Jaworski will be joined at the National Championships in Sacramento, Calif. by rising juniors Kyle Calvo and Stacey Kim, all of whom qualified for the championship in their respective events last weekend at the NCAA East Regionals in Greensboro, N.C.
In Greensboro, Jaworski qualified in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:49.30 last Friday. The next day, he improved his time to 1:48.95, taking second place overall in the event and retaining his All-American status.
Two years ago at Regionals, he also recorded his then-personal best of 1:47.391, also good for second place overall. Last year, he finished third in the Regionals and seventh in the Nationals.
This year, Jaworski will be the second-best returning runner to Nationals and will be primed for his best finish yet.
"Since this is the third time around, qualifying is kind of expected now, so I wasn't as nervous," he said.
"My primary goal is to win [at Nationals], and if not, to at least finish top three."
Given Jaworski's success over the past several years, he has already received offers to run professionally and plans to run for "at least the next two years."
And a strong showing on the NCAA's biggest stage would likely increase his opportunities down the road.
Calvo, who automatically qualified for Nationals in the decathlon, leaped 7.57 meters in the long jump at Regionals, good enough for third place in his flight and a ticket to that championship meet as well.
Last year as a freshman, he placed second at Regionals in the long jump and finished 13th at Nationals.
According to Calvo, the National Championships have a distinctly different feel from regular season meets, if only because the event is a purely individual one.
"Now that all the team stuff is done, it's all on yourself," he said. "It takes a little pressure off, but adds other kinds of pressure within yourself."
With a school record time of 4:23.67, Kim took fourth place in the 1500-meter run to qualify for the national meet, making her the women's team's only representative at Nationals.
This year will be the first in which Kim races at Nationals. Last year, she qualified for Regionals and finished in 13th.
"I'm still surprised I made it this far," she said." I'm really excited and want to do well, but I'm really just looking forward to getting the experience [of competing at this level]."
According to Jaworski, a strong Penn presence on the national level will give them a competitive edge in recruiting against other strong non-scholarship programs.
Kim also pointed out that the trip to Nationals represents the upward trend that program has experienced in the past several years.
"The team has improved so much over the the past couple of years; it's already in the process of grabbing people's attention. My qualifying for Nationals is just a reinforcement of that."
