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Track Teams Prepare For NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships It could be a big weekend for the UW-Stevens Point men’s outdoor track and field team as the Pointers aim to improve on their fourth place finish from the NCAA Division III indoor championships with nine athletes taking part in the outdoor championships Thursday through Saturday in Naperville, Ill. The Pointer women’s team also has three athletes participating in the outdoor meet after finishing 24th in the indoor championships. UW-Stevens Point’s men’s team is currently ranked fifth and the women are ranked 17th in the Division III power rankings. The men’s fourth place indoor finish was its highest in school history. Not only does the men’s team have big numbers of athletes heading to nationals, but they’ve got several chances for their first individual outdoor national champion since Tom Moris won the 10,000 meter run in 1988. Dan Schwamberger and Mike Mead won indoor national titles earlier this spring and are both looking to become the first-ever Pointer athletes to win indoor and outdoor championships in the same event during the same year. Schwamberger won the indoor 5,000 meters and has the fifth-best outdoor time at 14:30.80. Mead won the indoor high jump and is second nationally in the outdoors at 6-10 �, ranking only behind UW-Oshkosh’s Shannon King, who did not compete at the indoor championships. Other contenders for the Pointers include Jesse Drake, who ranks sixth in both the 5000 and 10,000 meters, and Shawn Hau in the 100 and 200 meters. Eric Miller also qualified in the 100 meters, Chris Horvat will compete in the 800 meters and Craig Gunderson could challenge for a top spot in the 400 meters after winning the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title. Shane Suehring, who won the WIAC title in the 3000 steeplechase, will challenge this weekend, along with the 4x100 relay team of Gunderson, Hau, Miller and Kyle Newman, which won the WIAC title in a record-setting time of 41.46 seconds. The 4x400 relay team of Gunderson, Hau, Horvat and Miller also will compete this weekend. On the women’s side, Leah Juno has the best chance to compete for a title with the fifth-best qualifying time in the 800 meters. Juno finished sixth at this year’s indoor meet and was seventh at last season’s outdoor nationals. Becky Lebak will compete in the 5000 meters and Katie Eiring will take part in the first-ever women’s pole vault competition with a qualifying height of 11-0 �. The meet runs three full days, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, 11 a.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday. |
Track Prepares for Outdoor NCAAs