Tomorrow, Annett Wichmann will break the University of Hawai'i track and field record for NCAA national appearances when she competes in pentathlon at the 44th annual NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship in Fayetteville, Ark.

Lots of records matter in track. This is not one for Wichmann, who is making her fourth national appearance to pass former UH sprinter Angela Williams (1982 to '84).

Wichmann has a shot at winning the pentathlon, after finishing 11th as a sophomore. She would like to bust over the 4,039 points that is her personal record and shatter every mark she has ever set in 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 meters.

Like most multi-event athletes on this planet, she wants to be like Castle graduate Bryan Clay, who captured heptathlon gold Sunday at the World Indoor Championships. It was his second world title.

"I think he's ready for the Olympics," Wichmann said about the 2004 Olympic silver medalist she met while he was practicing at Cooke Field's rainbow track. "For sure he inspires me. Anyone at that level is an inspiration ... but Bryan, being from Hawai'i, and he's so humble, so nice. He is amazing."

Wichmann's chances tomorrow might be as good as anyone's. She is ranked 12th, but most of the pentathletes are within 100 points of each other. No one who knows the 23-year-old senior from Jena, Germany, would put it past her.

"The Germanator" leap-frogged from 17th at the 2006 National Outdoors to ninth last year. This indoor season, Wichmann has set personal bests by running a sub-9-second hurdles, going 5 feet 8 in the high jump and kicking the 800 meters out in 2:19.60.

Wichmann is focused, fit and prepared, mostly, to have fun.

"I've been working out quite well this season so I just want to keep going," said Wichmann, who has won four WAC multi-event golds. "I believe in myself, that's the thing.

"You've just got to enjoy it. If you get too focused on goals it takes away from the actual performance. You try to do the best you can, then you re-focus on the next event if it's not good."

Or even if it is. Multi-event competitions are unlike any other track and field event. The ability to re-focus might be more important than the initial focus. All five pentathlon events will be run tomorrow, unlike heptathlon and decathlon, which go over two days.

Wichmann got to try out the Randal Tyson Track Center yesterday. With the meet opening today, she and coach Carmyn James are relegated to the football's indoor training facility, where there is a four-lane straightaway with hurdles and little else.

"We'll turn up the intensity there," James said. "After that maybe we'll go for a pedicure. That's what we did last year."

NOTES

Annett Wichmann is the only Rainbow to ever qualify for Indoor Nationals. ... The Rainbow Wahine's Outdoor Season opens tomorrow with an Intrasquad Scrimmage at Cooke Field. ... The team goes to the Hornet Invitational next weekend in Sacramento.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.