Official Championships Website
Schedule of Events
RICHARDSON, TX -- Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, Mississippi College, Texas-Tyler and Texas Lutheran will represent the American Southwest Conference in the 2009 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, to be held May 21-23 (Thursday-Saturday) at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio.
Athletes qualified for the national meet by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event.
The McMurry men enter as the defending national champions.
To view the complete list of qualifiers:
click here.
TEAM PREVIEWS:
Hardin-Simmons
The Hardin-Simmons will send three athletes to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships. The final list of qualifiers was posted on Sunday and the Cowgirls will send Ashley Huston and Dacy Ivy and Brendon Kelso will go for the men.
Huston had automatically qualified in five events – high jump, long jump, 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles and pentathlon and had provisional marks in two others – 4X400 relay and javelin throw. The two provisional marks did not hold up and Huston decided not to enter the 400 hurdles, as preliminary heats will be during the middle of the heptathlon.
Huston is a top contender in all four events she will compete and she is the heavy favorite in the heptathlon. She won the indoor pentathlon in March.
She goes into the NCAAs with the top mark in the nation in the high jump (5-8) and the heptathlon (5,138). She ranks fourth in the long jump with a leap of 19-2 ¾ and is also fourth in the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.28.
Ivy is ranked 18th in the heptathlon with a score of 4337. Kelso is ranked 13th nationally with a throw of 199-7.
McMurry
Fifteen McMurry track & field athletes are set to begin competition at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Ten McMurry men’s track & field athletes (nine will compete) made the trip to Ohio and will vie to defend last year’s National Championship, while five McMurry women’s track & field athletes will contend for the women’s title.
On the men’s side, McMurry has a strong chance to defend its national title as they have more athletes competing in the Championships than they have ever before. The McMurry men will once again be led by track & field phenom Hann Ollison, who is arguably one of the greatest NCAA Division III track & field athletes of all time. Ollison qualified in six events at the NCAA Championships but will compete in five events: 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, long jump, 4x100-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay (he automatically qualified in the 100-meter dash as well but he won’t compete in the event at the National meet).
Ollison, who is the defending 400-meter Outdoor champion as well as a two-time Indoor champion in the event, is the pre-Championships favorite to repeat in the 400-meter dash as well as win the 200-meter dash. Ollison is the top seed in the 200m by virtue of his 20.98 performance at the Oliver Jackson Open in late April and he is the top seed in the 400m courtesy of his 46.59 effort he ran at the University of Texas Twilight in mid April. Furthermore, Ollison enters the Outdoor Championships with the third-best long jump effort in the nation (24-3 at the American Southwest Conference Championships); is the anchor on the fourth-fastest 4x400-meter relay squad in the nation; and is the anchor on the seventh-fastest 4x100-meter team in the nation.
Also competing on the men’s side for McMurry are Gavan Bass, Thomas Dimitri, Zach Shew, Bryce Williamson, Jeremy Wilson, Brendon Bounds, Marcus Thompson, Javorious Tatum, and Keith Booth.
Bass will be competing in the 100-meter dash, the long jump and the 4x100-meter relay. Bass, who finished second in the long jump at the Indoor Championships in March, currently has the second-best jump in the nation as he jumped 24-3 ½ at the Oliver Jackson Open in late April (his best jump is a ½ inch better the Ollison’s best effort on the year). Bass also has the ninth-fastest 100-meter time in the nation as he ran a 10.65 at the ASC Championships.
Dimitri, who won the ASC title in the pole vault with a vault effort of 16-8 ¾, currently ranks third in the nation entering the Outdoor Championships; meanwhile, Shew enters the meet with the fifth-best high jump effort as he jumped 6-9 ¾ at the Oliver Jackson Open.
Williamson, who was a member of last year’s 4x400-meter relay squad that placed third in the nation to help McMurry secure its first-ever National Championship, returns to the national meet this year and will again compete in the 4x400-meter relay. The other two members of the 4x400-meter relay team are Wilson and Bounds (Thompson is an alternate on the 4x400m team). Aside from Ollison and Bass, the 4x100-meter relay team will also consist of Tatum and Booth (Wilson is an alternate on the 4x100m relay team).
Last year, the McMurry women finished sixth at the Outdoor Championships and they are poised for an even stronger showing this year with five athletes competing, and many of them in multiple events.
Brena Anderson-Burton, who last year at the National meet finished fifth in the long jump as well as fifth in the triple jump to garner all-American accolades, will compete in this year’s Championships in the long jump, triple jump and the 4x100-meter relay (she enters the meet ranked ninth in the triple jump and 18th in the long jump, while the 4x100-meter relay team is ranked 13th in the nation).
Alexa Roman will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and the 4x100-meter relay. Roman is currently ranked seventh in the 100m hurdles and 15th in the long jump.
Quenisha Franklin will also appear in multiple events for McMurry as she qualified in the 100-meter dash as well as the 4x100-meter relay. Franklin enters the National meet ranked 20th in the 100m. The last member of the 4x100-meter relay team is Shelbe Hernandez.
Rounding out McMurry’s participants in the Outdoor Championships is a familiar face to the Championship stage: defending pole vault champion Holly Rollins. Last year, Rollins won the pole vault with a vault of 12-10 ¼ at the Outdoor Championships. Rollins enters this year’s Championships ranked 10th in the pole vault by virtue of her 12-3 ½ effort she had at the ASC Championships.
Texas-Tyler
Senior Ben Donnan (Paris, Texas) of The University of Texas at Tyler men’s track & field team was selected to compete in the 800 meter in event at the 2009 NCAA Division III Track and Field Outdoor National Championships.
Donnan was one of just 17 athletes chosen to compete in the event based on their best qualifying time from the season.
Donnan’s best time in the event during the season came on April 18 at Baylor’s Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco. Donnan set a new school record at the meet with a time of 1:51.81.
While Donnan was 71 hundredths of a second short of reaching the automatic qualification time, his time did meet the provisional qualification standards.
Meeting the provisional standard meant Donnan was forced to wait until Sunday to finds out whether his time would be good enough to make the cut. Donnan tied with Peter Najem of Keene State for the final spot in the race.
Donnan will begin his quest for a National Title in the event on Friday, May 22, when he will compete in the time trails for the event. Donnan will run in the final of three heats that are scheduled to begin at 4:40 p.m.
The finals in the 800 meter event are scheduled for Saturday, May 23, at 2:50 p.m.
Texas Lutheran
Senior sprinter Staci Jackson and the Texas Lutheran women's 4x100 meter relay team are headed to the 2009 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Jackson (Dallas/Lake Highlands) qualified individually for the national championships in the 200 and the 400, and the relay team of Jackson, Sahara Bragner (Victoria/Memorial), Devin Evans (Houston/Hightower), and Shyra Walker (Cuero/Cuero) made the field in the 4x100. Senior Casey Toombs (Amarillo/Amarillo) will travel with the team as an alternate.
Jackson is a 10-time track and field All-American (nine at TLU) with experience from three previous national championship outdoor meets. Bragner, Evans, and Walker are freshmen.
TLU is the defending NCAA DIII national champion in the women's 4x100. Jessica Raglon, Ashley Williams, and Amber Meeks joined with Jackson to win the 2008 title. Raglon, Williams, and Meeks each graduated from TLU after four years in the Bulldogs' track and field program.
TLU's 4x100 takes DIII's ninth-fastest time into the national championships. The Bulldogs posted a time of 47.71 seconds at the
Trinity Alumni Classic on April 9. Wartburg College is the top-ranked 4x100 team entering the national meet. Wartburg recorded a time of 46.77 at the Drake Relays on April 25.
TLU won the 2008 national title in the 4x100 with a school-record time of 46.42.
Jackson qualified automatically in the 400 with a school-record time of 55.65 at the University of Oklahoma Twilight on May 9. Jackson's time is the fourth-fastest in NCAA DIII. Hannah Baker, a junior from Wartburg, ran a time of 54.89 at the IIAC Outdoor Championships on May 9.
Jackson was sixth in last season's outdoor 400 final.
Jackson is the 10th-fastest qualifier in the 200 with a time of 24.81, recorded April 25 at the American Southwest Conference Championships. The nation's top qualifier is Brooke Bell, a sophomore from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, who posted a time of 23.98 at the WIAC Outdoor Championships on May 2.
Jackson, TLU's 2008-09 Female Student-Athlete of the Year, is a two-time NCAA Division III national champion. In addition to her title with the 2008 4x100 outdoor relay team, Jackson was a member of the Bulldogs' 2007 national championship in the indoor 4x400 meter relay.
-Team Previews Courtesy of Each Sports Information Department