Fayetteville, Ark. (March 7, 2007)?Currently holding the sixth-best mark on the declared athletes list, shot putter Milan Jotanovic makes his return to the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend at the University of Arkansas' Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center.
“I have worked hard all season to reach this point,” said Jotanovic, Manhattan's lone representative at the competition after long jumper Nick Newman and triple jumper Tiina Magi's provisional qualifying marks did not make the cut. “As I said last year in Sacramento, I feel a lot of responsibility to myself and my school to have a good performance at this meet.”
The men's shot put competition is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 10.
Jotanovic, a junior, made his first appearance at the national meet last March, earning NCAA All-American honors. At the time, Jotanovic's eighth-place throw of 18.65m capped off the best indoor season of any shot putter in Manhattan Track and Field history. During the 2006 indoor campaign, Jotanovic broke the school record on six occasions, captured his first IC4A title with a new personal record of 19.42m, and repeated as MAAC Champion with a new meet record of 19.30m.
Jotanovic's top seasonal mark of 19.40m ranks him sixth amongst the 15-entrant field that is led by University of Idaho's Russ Winger and his seed mark of 19.94m. Although they hold better marks than Jotanovic, the five athletes seeded ahead of the Manhattan thrower do not pose an insurmountable task for the Jasper. Jotanovic has finished ahead of Winger, as well as two other declared athletes seeded in the top five, at previous competitions.
At the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Jotanovic finished 11th overall, while Winger failed to qualify for the final round. This past February, Jotanovic defeated the third-seeded (19.73m) Mitchell Pope of North Carolina State University head-to-head en route to claiming first place at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. University of Florida sophomore Wes Stockbarger sits just ahead of Jotanovic as the field's fifth seed with a mark of 19.44m, but did not finish ahead of Jotanovic at the 2006 NCAA East Region Championships.
Although Jotanovic has had success against other athletes in the field, past performances become meaningless once Saturday according to head coach Dan Mecca.
“It comes down to who is the best thrower on that particular day,” said Mecca. “Milan has beaten some of these athletes in the past, but that means nothing when the competition starts on Saturday.”