Wichita State's Austin Corley will do his pushups and sit-ups the day of the race, warm up, say a short prayer and, as he settles into the starting blocks for the 400-meter hurdles, tell himself he belongs in the race.
"Then it's time to run," he said. "It's important to have a routine before you race."
Corley runs on Thursday evening (6:30 p.m.) in the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, Calif., making his third appearance in the meet that qualifies runners for the NCAA Championships. As a freshman, he finished 30th with a time of 52.