NCAA Announces Field For 2012 NCAA Track & Field Championships

Complete .PDF

The 2012 NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships will be held this weekend (May 24-26) at Burns Stadium on the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, California. The North Coast Athletic Conference will once again be well represented at the national meet as 20 individuals have qualified as well as two relay teams. Five different NCAC schools will represent the conference on the men’s side, including Allegheny, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Wabash and Wittenberg, while Allegheny, Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster will all have female competitors at the national meet.

ALLEGHENY will be sending a pair of student-athletes to California for the national meet. Junior Bobby Over (Wadsworth, OH/Wadsworth) will represent the men’s squad in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while senior Lauren Butler (New Kensington, PA/Kiski) will be part of the javelin competition at the national meet for the second year in a row. Butler earned her spot in the national meet with a toss of 141’00.00” at the NCAC Championships on May 4th, while Over posted his qualifying time of 9:03.82 at the Bucknell Bison Classic on April 14th.

Three DENISON student-athletes have been selected to compete at the national meet, including seniors Dee Salukombo (Lakewood, OH/Lakewood) and Chris Roth (Milwaukee, WI/University School) along with sophomore Tiffany Davis (Madison, TN/Pope John Paul II). Salukombo, who is making his fourth-consecutive trip to the national meet, qualified for the 10,000-meter run for the first time in his career with a personal-best time 30:02.25 at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina on March 30th and posted his qualifying time of 14:22.07 in the 5,000-meter run at the Gina Relays at Hillsdale College in Michigan on April 26th. Davis and Roth both earned their spots in the national meet with career-best performances at the 2012 NCAC Championships held at Allegheny, May 4-5. Roth earned his ticket to California in the 200-meter dash after crossing the line in a personal-best time of 21.55, while Davis also qualified in the 200-meter dash after breaking Denison, NCAC and Allegheny College Frank B. Fuhrer Field records with a time of 24.87.

KENYON sophomore Jenna Willett (Kensington, MD/Walter Johnson) is one of three NCAC student-athletes to qualify for the women’s 5,000-meter run. Willett earned her spot in the 20-runner field after setting the Kenyon record in the event with a time of 17:00.86 at the Denison Big Red Invitational on April 27th.

OBERLIN sophomore Molly Martorella (Winchendon, MA/Murdock) will also represent the NCAC in the women’s 5,000-meter run. Martorella posted her qualifying mark at the Gina Relays at Hillsdale College after finishing second overall in the event with a school record time of 16:41.98.

Nine OHIO WESLEYAN track & field student-athletes will be making the trip to California for the national meet. The OWU men will be represented by junior Ethan Freet (London, OH/London), junior Silas Jolliff (Cardington, OH/Cardington-Lincoln), junior Matt Martin (New Brighton, PA/Riverside) and freshman Brian Cook (Strongsville, OH/Strongsville), while junior Emily Amburgey (Germantown, OH/Preble Shawnee), freshman Katie Reid (Marion, OH/Harding), sophomore Cara DeAngelis (Norton, OH/Ellett), sophomore Sarah Bechtel (Bellefontaine, OH/Bellefontaine) and junior Hannah Benzing (Findlay, OH/Liberty Benton) will represent the OWU women’s team. Freet qualified for the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.84 at the Marv Frye Invitational on April 7th, while Jolliff is the 19th seed in the men’s 400-meter dash after qualifying with a time of 48.17 at OWU’s Ron Althoff Final Qualifier meet held on May 14th. In addition, Martin and  Cook will join Freet and Jolliff in the 4x400-meter race after the team qualified for the national meet with a time of 3:14.72 at the Ron Althoff Meet. On the women’s side, the Battling Bishops are led by Benzing who has qualified for both the discus and hammer events after posting a mark of 143’00.00” in the discus at the Amy Adams Memorial Invitational held at Muskingum University on March 24th and a qualifying toss of 166’04.00” in the hammer at the All-Ohio Div. III Championships held at OWU on April 14th. Reid upped her qualifying mark in the 800-meter run to the 11th seed at last weekend’s North Central Gregory Final Qualifier with a time of 2:10.46. DeAngelis is also the 11th seed in the 5,000-meter run after clocking a time of 16:58.70 at the Ron Althoff Meet. In field events, Amburgey is the seventh seed in the high jump after clearing 5’07.00” at the Ron Althoff Meet, while Bechtel is the 16th seed in the pole vault with a qualifying height of 12’01.50” accomplished at the Marv Frye Invitational.

WABASH will be sending eight members of its 2012 squad to the national meet in California, led by junior Jake Waterman (Noblesville, IN/Noblesville) who enters the meet with the fastest time in the country in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:48.64 set at the Indiana University Polytan Invitational on April 21st. Senior Kevin McCarthy (Zionsville, IN/Zionsville) is also primed to make a run at a national title as he enters the meet as the third seed in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:47.20, also accomplished at the IU Polytan Invitational. Freshman Ronnie Posthauer (Ladoga, IN/Fountain Central) made a late season push to qualify for the national meet in the 110-meter hurdles, eventually breaking the top-20 with a time of 14.64 at the North Central Gregory Final Qualifier on May 18th. In addition, Waterman will be joined by sophomore Cole Hruskovich (Lafayette, IN/Central Catholic), freshman Joel Whittington (Terre Haute, IN/Northview) and junior John Haley (Terre Haute, IN/South) as the third seed in the 4x400-meter relay. The team earned its qualifying mark in the event with a time of 3:12.55 at the North Central Dr. Keeler Meet on May 10th. Finally, junior Evan Groninger (Pendleton, IN/Pendleton Hts.) and senior Daniel Ambrosio (Apache Junction, AZ/Apache Junction) have both met qualifying standards in the javelin throw. Groninger is the eight seed in the event after registering a toss of 206’04.00” at the NCAC Championships on May 4-5th, while Ambrosio posted the 11th-best toss in the nation (203’08.00”) at the Wabash J.O. Huntsman Relays on March 17th.

WITTENBERG sophomore Victor Banjo (Sugarland, TX/Stephen F. Austin) has qualified for both the 100 and 200 meter dash events at the national meet. Banjo is the 17th seed in the 100 after posting a time of 10.64 at the North Central Gregory Final Qualifier and is 18th in the 200 after breaking the tape at the NCAC Championships with a time of 21.53.

WOOSTER junior Abena Boamah-Acheampong (Reynoldsburg, OH/Pickerington Central) is the final NCAC student-athlete to post a qualifying mark for the national meet. Boamah-Acheampong earned her invitation to the meet in the high jump after clearing 5’06.00” at the All-Ohio Div. III Championships at Ohio Wesleyan on April 14th.