Even as Annett Wichmann charts new track and field territory in Manoa she dreams of what she left behind — and what might lie ahead — in Germany.

In her second year at Hawai'i, "The Germanator" has become the first Rainbow Wahine to qualify for the NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships. Her pentathlon competition begins Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark., with the 60-meter hurdles, followed by high jump, shot put, long jump and the dreaded 800 meters.

"That pain shoots into the legs at about 400 meters," Wichmann says of the final event. "Then you just try to get it over with."

She had little trouble last May when she blew by Utah State senior Lacey Hulbert on the final turn to win the Western Athletic Conference heptathlon (seven events in two days) in Manoa. Wichmann was the second Rainbow Wahine to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, where she finished 16th.

Her goal Saturday is to accumulate 4,100 points — 61 more than she opened the season with during a win in Seattle. She is ranked eighth nationally, one of 15 women with more than 4,000 points.

From there, she is shooting for a top-10 finish at the NCAA Outdoors and possibly a place at this summer's World University Games in Bangkok, as she eases herself back into the range finder of the German National program. A year after she won the 2001 World Youth Championships in Hungary, a back injury took her off her national radar.

The injury hurt Wichmann in many ways, but ultimately it worked out for her and Hawai'i. "Stressed out" by the demands of track and field, study and work back home in Jena — halfway between Berlin and Munich — she locked in on Hawai'i as her U.S. school of choice and bought her ticket here two months before she was officially accepted.

"Here," said Wichmann, an all-WAC Academic selection majoring in kinesiology and psychology, "the balance is really, really good."

Her comfort level is most obvious at major meets. The WAC win, anchored by an audacious javelin throw (141 feet, 3 inches), is her heptathlon highlight over a disappointing NCAA finish. So far, she chooses her Seattle victory as her premier pentathlon showing. Wichmann tweaked her balky back during the shot put at WAC Indoors, Feb. 24 in Nampa, Idaho, and finished first but unfulfilled.

"I won WAC Championships but I wasn't very satisfied," she said. "Just before I had such a great pentathlon (in Seattle). The first event was good and it just got better. In that, I would have been happy with second or third."

Part of that attitude is simply her multi-event mentality. Pentathletes and heptathletes, like decathletes, are focused on beating standards and personal bests almost to the exclusion of human opposition. The competitors are remarkably empathetic and close-knit.

Wichmann's physical problems also play a part. Her performance at the WAC Indoors was understandably tentative and ultimately courageous after her injury. She is hoping her rehab and work with a chiropractor will relieve the pain this weekend.

"All that's holding her back now is, well, her back ... ," UH coach Carmyn James says. "The fact that it's an NCAA Championship definitely raises the bar and as we've learned already she's good at coming through at important meets."

Wichmann has made a 15-percent improvement in the shot put since she arrived here, but changes in every other event are less obvious and more detailed.

She came in a huge talent particularly adept at field events because of her "explosive" power. Last year, James focused on technique and strength. This year, the emphasis has been on speed and "locking in on the process, and letting the process speak for itself in points."

The points are adding up, enough to attract attention 7,300 miles away — in Jena, Germany.

"Last year she was thinking she'd been cut off from the German national team," James said. "She was going to come here and do her best, enjoy Hawai'i and get an education and just enjoy life. But now she's got her confidence back and, after last year, she's thinking maybe she can still be with the national team."

After what she has achieved in paradise, coaches are no longer running in the opposite direction.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.