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GREENSBORO -- Just a short while after hosting some state high school track and field championships, A&T's Irwin Belk Track is set for the national stage during the next few days.

With a logo painted in the middle of the field and swoosh signs throughout the grandstands, the Nike Outdoor Nationals will heat up today and Saturday as some of the nation's best high school talent squares off.

"There is no equivalent," said assistant meet director A.J. Holzherr.

"And the testament to that is, that the 2004 and 2008 men's and women's U.S. Olympic Track and Field team, better than 60 percent of those kids ran in one or more of our events during high school. So that tells you, there's no competition like this postseason."

Holzherr said around 80-100 college coaches will be in attendance to check out this star-studded group of young athletes, and there certainly are some events worth drooling over -- one of those being the boys shot put.

"There's never in history been more than one 70-footer in a meet, and we've got four over 71 feet," Holzherr said.

Among those is sophomore Nick Vena from Whippany, N.J., who just recorded a throw of 72 feet and 8 inches earlier this month.

Senior Wesley Lavong from Collegeville, Pa., is in the second flight of the finals with Vena and company. He said he doesn't get much competition with in-state meets during the year, but the Nike Outdoor Nationals are on a different level.

"Coming here, where everybody is, it's going to be real good," he said. "Because everybody is going to be pushing you. I'm in the last flight. I'm one of the top seeds, so it should be fun &ellipses; I'm looking for a good PR."

Another event Holzherr highlighted was the boys high jump, which has 10 athletes who have cleared seven feet. Some notable girls to watch are Jillian Smith (800m), Ebony Eutsey (400m), Chalonda Goodman (100 and 200m) and Chelsey Sveinsson (1 mile and 2 mile).

The starter sheet for the meet does not come with past times for the athletes. Holzherr explained there are other considerations when the seeding committee makes its decisions.

"Maybe one kid ran well early and he hasn't run well lately," he said. "So there's a lot of factors that we consider."

Holzherr also mentioned the extension of qualification to certain athletes thanks to a second flight of competition called the "Emerging Elite." That began in 2007 and has expanded each year since.

"We tried to get away from strictly an elitist type of meet," he said. "We have developed a meet within a meet, which we call our Emerging Elite division. And those are for kids that may just miss out one on set of standards, and now have an opportunity to excel."

Contact Jesse Baumgartner at 373-7071 or jesse.baumgartner@ news-record.com