Though there is no grander stage in sports than the Olympics, Binghamton University pole vaulter Rory Quiller actually feels less pressure as he prepares for the Olympic Trials than he did at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships just over two months ago.

“Indoor nationals, it’s like, who knows when you’re going to get another national champ at Binghamton?” Quiller said. “I think other people kind of looked it as, ‘Oh, geez, this could be our shot. Everybody was really good with not heaping pressure, [but I could still feel it]. So now with the Olympics it’s kind of something that’s for me and it’s something that I’ve always aspired to do.”

The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials are scheduled to be held from June 27 to July 6 in Eugene, Ore. Twenty-four pole vaulters will jump in the preliminary round on June 27, with the top 12-16 finishers, depending on ties, advancing to the finals on June 29.

The top three finishers in the finals qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, held from Aug. 8 to 24, as long as they have reached a height of 18-8 1/4 either at the trials or in the season leading up to it.

Quiller, a 24-year-old graduate student at BU, has yet to reach the 18-8 1/4 mark. He qualified for the Olympics by reaching the provisional mark of 18-0 in December, and won the national championship — Binghamton University’s first on the Division I level — with a jump of 18 1/2 in Fayetteville, Ark. on April 14. His NCAA eligibility ended with the meet.

Quiller set a personal record of 18-6 1/2 on March 4, but believes he’ll be able to reach at least 19-0, which he and Binghamton track and field coach Mike Thompson both said would be necessary to qualify for the Olympics.

“I think I can do it for the same that you think you can jump 12 feet when you’re jumping 11-6,” Quiller said. “It’s the same thing. Every single meet I go there thinking I’m going to set a personal record … Right now I’m kind of a clown when it comes to performing. In the smaller meets I don’t jump that well and I think I’m very capable of jumping high in bigger meets. Adrenaline — necessity kind of fuels that.”

Quiller will be jumping outdoors and has attended several outdoor meets since the BU track and field season concluded, and reached 18-0 in each one. Physically he felt at 95 percent the weekend before the trials after going on antibiotics in early June.

“I think I’m fine, I just got to shake out the cob webs,” Quiller said.

In practice, Quiller has followed the same routine he always has, jumping twice a week and focusing on technique.

Quiller will be up against a field that includes Derek Miles, 35; Tim Mack, 35; and Brad Walker, 27, the U.S. record-holder with 19-9 1/2. Quiller finished second to Walker at the U.S. Indoor National Track and Field Championships.

“I think there are about 12 guys that have a chance to make the team and Rory’s one of those guys,” Coach Mike Thompson said.

If Quiller qualifies for the Olympics, he would be the third student athlete in BU’s history to do so.