24 Titans To Compete At NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
UW-Oshkosh has qualified 19 men and five women to this weekend’s National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The 36th edition of the championships will be held Friday (March 13) at 10 a.m. (EDT) and Saturday (March 14) at 11 a.m. (EDT).
Leading UW-Oshkosh’s list of participants in the men’s championship is sophomore Jonathan Wilburn. He earned the meet's top triple jump seed following his school-record measurement of 50-3 1/4 at the Ripon College Red Hawk Opener held Jan. 25. Wilburn achieved All-America honors in the triple jump at last year's championship with his fifth-place distance of 48-4.
UW-Oshkosh freshman Jaylen Grant is seeded fourth in the 60-meter dash and sophomore Steven Potter fifth in the 800-meter run with their season-best times of 6.81 seconds and 1:52.70, respectively. Grant's time earned at the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge held Feb. 22 established a school record.
The Titans’ 1,600-meter relay team of Todd Beadle, Ethan Burch, Adrian Girone and Amitai Wheat is seeded second for the championship with their season-best time of 3:16.83.
UW-Oshkosh will have three contestants in the pole vault and two competitors apiece in the 60-meter dash, long jump and shot put.
Representing the Titans in the pole vault are Zachary Emmer, Eli Tranel and Joe Vils. Robert Ogbuli will compete in the 60-meter dash while Jamyle Brantley and Roman Hill will participate in the long jump and Jackson Sheckler and Nick Tegtmeier in the shot put. Ogbuli acquired All-America honors in the 60-meter dash at last year's championship with his fifth-place time of 6.91 seconds.
Other UW-Oshkosh qualifiers for the men’s championship are Benjamin Jung in the 200-meter dash, Andrew George in the mile run, Justin Rivers in the high jump and Lochlan Siegmeier in the heptathlon. Jung also plays baseball for UW-Oshkosh, and this past Sunday (March 8) his first collegiate hit was a home run that helped the Titans defeat nationally ranked Denison University (Ohio), 4-0.
Senior Hannah Lohrenz paces UW-Oshkosh’s list of competitors for the women’s championship. Lohrenz is seeded seventh in the mile run with her season-best time of 4:49.86.
The Titans will also be represented by Morgan Florek in the 20-pound weight throw, Libby Geisness in the 800-meter run, Ashton Keene in the 5,000-meter run and Emma Warr in the pole vault. Warr is seeded 13th in the pole vault with her season-best height of 12-3 1/2.
For each men’s and women's individual event contested the top 20 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each relay event contested, the top 12 declared relay teams, one per institution, were accepted into the competition.
The top eight finishers in each event at the Division III Championship will earn All-America accolades.
The UW-Oshkosh men were the national co-champion in 2009. The Titans’ 12 top-four finishes also includes runner-up listings in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2013. UW-Oshkosh placed ninth at last year’s championship with 17 points.
UW-Oshkosh owns a division-record nine national titles on the women’s side. The Titans claimed their first-place finishes in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2014. No other Division III program has won more than six team championships. UW-Oshkosh also produced a record seven national runner-up finishes in 1990, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2010, 2012 and 2015. The Titans placed 27th at last year’s championship with nine points.
The North Central College (Ill.) men and the Williams College (Mass.) women captured the team titles at last year's championships.
NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship Qualifiers: Men • Women
NCAA Division III Men's Indoor Track & Field • NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field