GoHeels Exclusive: On The Rise

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Fourteen months removed from winning the women's high jump at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Nicole Greene says the feeling is still surreal. Sometimes she even has to remind herself that her performance happened.

It took an unprecedented seven-round jump-off. But in the end, she became North Carolina's first national champion since 2007. That achievement meant just as much to her as it did the program.

"I think it helped a lot of people see that you can still do it, no matter the circumstances," Greene said. "It's not like everything has been super easy for me, but you can surpass all of the obstacles to do what you want to do here. I think it brought confidence to the team."

Madison Wiltrout agrees.

Then in her first year at Carolina, the redshirt freshman said the magnitude of Greene's accomplishment didn't settle in until she hugged Greene and congratulated her a few days later. At that point, she realized there was no reason why she couldn't one day be in Greene's position.

"It's huge (to win a national championship) but really possible for anyone, as long as you do what she does, if you work hard," Wiltrout said. "It's 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical. So you've gotta have that extra drive that she had. But right then and there, you're like, 'I'm going to do it. Right by your side, Nicole.'"

In many ways, Wiltrout and Jill Shippee are each starting to set a similar example.

Inspired by Greene and her success, Wiltrout and Shippee have each solidified their place among the nation's elite in the women's javelin and women's hammer throw, respectively. That became even more apparent two weeks ago, when they each earned individual titles at the ACC Outdoor Championships. Greene also won an ACC title, giving the Tar Heels three individual league champions for the first time since the 2014 indoor conference meet.

Beginning Thursday, the trio will participate in their first competition since then, the NCAA East Preliminary Round in Jacksonville, Fla.

All three are seeded in the top three for their events. The top-12 finishers from each event will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas. Should Greene, Shippee and Wiltrout all make it there, they'll likely have an opportunity to secure the Tar Heel women's first top-25 finish at the championships since 2007.

"All it takes is two or three good people on a team to make some noise at the conference level, the national level," Shippee said. "And then you can really start to hype them up and get those recruits in. It's a domino effect. It's awesome. I think we're really starting to see that. … We're on the rise for a really good program."

Greene, Shippee and Wiltrout are significant reasons why. And they've each had different journeys to this point in the season.

Driven by failures

Long before winning her national championship, Greene was planning on redshirting during the 2018 outdoor and 2019 indoor seasons. Specifically, she wanted to spend time focusing on training for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

But she also had an academic endeavor she wished to pursue.

Since 1974, UNC's Medical Education Development (MED) program has provided prospective medical or dental school students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, a taste of what professional school will be like. Participants in the nine-week summer course shadow physicians, develop clinical skills through patient simulation and engage in professional development seminars.

Greene, an exercise and sport science major with minors in chemistry and medical anthropology, is a medical school hopeful. So when she learned about the MED program, she knew she wanted to apply. There was a problem, though: The program begins around the same time as the preliminary rounds for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

"I knew it wasn't something I could do in college, so I thought I would just do it during my gap year," she said. "But (Nicole Hudson) said, 'Hey, we're redshirting you outdoor no matter what happens indoor. So if you want to do this program, go ahead and apply.' It just worked out."

Greene said it was "kind of weird" redshirting after she won a national title. But during that time, she started a different weightlifting program and changed her high-jump approach.

As a freshman and sophomore, her approach consisted of four bounds and six runs. Now, she's doing three bounds and seven runs. That, she said, is much faster and took getting used to. She was still adjusting to it for much of the outdoor season.

But at the ACC Outdoor Championships, her first championship meet since the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships, Greene matched her lifetime-best height of 6 feet, 2 inches. The mark is tied for the second best in NCAA Division I competition this outdoor season.

"Being able to jump and PR 6-2 at a championship meet is really nice," she said, "and it gave me a lot of confidence for my postseason stuff."

Greene will attempt to carry that into the NCAA East Preliminary Round. Having finished 13th and 23rd in two career preliminary appearances, she's looking to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time.

"I think not making it through regionals my sophomore outdoor season really drove me to do a little bit more for my (2018) indoor season and this outdoor season," Greene said. "I let those failures drive what I'm doing now.

"When I go to regionals, I don't want to look at the past failures and be like, 'Oh, gosh, here I am again.' I'm going to disregard that and just trust everything that I've done so far and I'll be fine."

Knowing she belongs

Coming out of Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, N.Y., Shippee, a two-time New Balance Nationals hammer throw All-American and national champion, had never focused solely on track. She also played soccer and lettered in that sport three times.

But as a freshman last season, she said one of the biggest adjustments she faced was getting accustomed to being invested in track all the time.

"You kind of have to shift your mental gears a little bit," she said.

She showed no signs of struggling with that, though, tallying 14 top-five finishes. The last of those came at the NCAA East Preliminary Round, where she took fifth in the women's hammer throw with a throw of 204 feet.

From there, Shippee went on to finish 14th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. That earned her second-team All-America honors. She then took second in the women's hammer throw at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championship and finished sixth in the event at the IAAF World U20 Championships.

All of that, she said, boosted her confidence entering her sophomore season. Just before it began, she started a new technique.

"All fall, we focused on four turns," said Shippee, who did three turns as a freshman. "It was a big adjustment, but I think it worked out in the end. I'm still not where I want to be, but this season has been a good step in the right direction."

During it, she's fouled out twice, primarily the result of her still getting used to the extra force and speed she's now generating. The second time was at the Tom Jones Memorial, her last competition before the ACC Outdoor Championships.

In the days leading up to it, Shippee caught a stomach bug that affected her preparation.

"I only had a couple of practices," she said. " So I was a little nervous about it. But going into ACCs, I was like, 'You know what? Whatever happens, happens.'"

That mindset helped her capture the ACC women's hammer throw title. In winning it, she registered a throw of 224-3, setting the school record for the fifth time in her career. The throw also set a new ACC Championship record and a new conference record.

Shippee's mark is still the fourth best in the country entering the NCAA East Preliminary Round. She hopes to build on it then and at the NCAA Championships.

"I really want to make NCAAs and I really want to make the (U.S.) senior team afterward," she said. "But I think knowing that I belong there now and being comfortable saying, 'It is a possibility.' But we've got to look a little further.

"You can't get caught up with all of that stuff. You've got to take it week by week, punching that ticket and hopefully moving on. Just having that confidence and having that chip on your shoulder and knowing you are where you should be."

Getting over the past

On May 7, 2015, Wiltrout, then a sophomore at Connellsville (Penn.) High School, drew national attention when she recorded a javelin throw of 185-8. That mark remains the U.S. high school record. It also earned her an invitation to the U.S. Olympic Trials.

But shortly after her memorable throw, her throwing elbow gave out.

She was forced to undergo surgery and spent the next two years trying to regain her form. Then upon arriving at UNC in the fall of 2017, she started experiencing issues with her back that led her to redshirt all last season.

"I really didn't want to redshirt," Wiltrout said. "I thought I could still push through it. But I figured I would give (my back) that time."

That decision started paying dividends last June, when she placed third at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships with a throw of 173-5. That moment, she said, was "a huge confidence booster." And after training throughout the fall, she won three of her first four events this spring.

Still, Wiltrout said she spent too much time dwelling on her past, as she'd often done since her elbow surgery. Her numbers weren't quite what she wanted them to be. But over time, she started changing her mindset, along with the assistance of Jeff Gorski.

"I was thinking I was a has-been, an athlete who gets injured and never comes back," Wiltrout said. "I started focusing this year on the now and who I am now. If I'm focusing on the past, I'm limiting myself, because I wasn't the best then. So, I tried to change it to be on who I am now and how I can be better than ever.

"It was hard. It took a few weeks to get over the past. And that's when I started hitting numbers that made me completely get over the past."

At Miami's Hurricane Alumni Invitational, Wiltrout posted a collegiate-best mark of 181-4. That set a new school record, besting the previous record by over five feet. Looking back now, she says that was "like my javelin career reset."

As much as that performance meant to her, it doesn't compare to what she accomplished a few weeks later, when she won the ACC women's javelin throw title. Her opening throw of 182-5 reset her own school record and is currently the eight best in the country.

"It was more than just winning a title," said Wiltrout, the No. 3 seed in the NCAA East Preliminary Round. "It was more of conquering all of what I had to conquer."

Now she'll look to conquer NCAAs, along with Greene and Shippee.

"Me, Jill and Nicole have really shown that we had to push through many things that made you want to give up, but we didn't," Wiltrout said. "That's why we are where we are."

Players Mentioned

Nicole Greene

Jill Shippee

Madison Wiltrout

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