Titans Send Impressive Group To NCAA Championship

Titans Send Impressive Group To NCAA Championship

UW-Oshkosh will send 17 student-athletes, including second-seeded Jack Flynn in the discus and third seeds Ryan Powers in the 400-meter run, Joe Vils in the pole vault and Jonathan Wilburn in the triple jump, to this weekend's NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Geneva, Ohio.

The 46th version of the championship will be held Thursday through Saturday (May 23-25) at the SPIRE Institute. Competition begins at 10 a.m. (EDT) both Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday. The meet will be held in conjunction with the 38th edition of the women's championship.

The men's championship features 20 entrants in each of the 19 individual events and 16 contestants in each of the two relays. UW-Oshkosh will have representation in nine individual events and both relays. The top-eight finishers in each event gain All-America recognition.

Flynn, who earned all-region honors in assisting UW-Oshkosh to a Division III men's basketball title this past winter, is competing in the discus at the Division III Championship for the second straight year after finishing fifth with a measurement of 169-7 in 2018.

Flynn merited this year's second seed for the championship by recording a distance of 174-2 at the Augustana College (Ill.) Twilight Invitational held May 16. He earlier marked a second-place throw of 162-6 at the WIAC Championship held May 3-4 in Platteville. Flynn's performance at the league championship helped the Titans finish second in the team competition with 138 points.

Cameron Yon of Penn State University-Harrisburg is the top discus seed for this weekend's meet with a throw of 184-7. Yon was a seventh-place finisher at the 2018 championship.

Powers is performing in the 400-meter run at the Division III Championship for the fourth straight year. He finished 14th nationally with a time of 48.18 seconds in 2016, eighth with a time of 47.73 in 2017 and 13th with a time of 48.12 in 2018.

Powers achieved the third seed for this year's meet with a victorious school-record time of 47.22 seconds at the WIAC Championship. Earlier this season he finished third with a school-record time of 47.80 seconds in the 400-meter run at the Division III Indoor Championship held March 8-9 in Boston, Mass.

Patrick Mikel of Loras College (Iowa) is seeded first and Liam Fost of Emory University (Ga.) second in the 400-meter run for this weekend's championship with times of 46.92 and 47.19 seconds, respectively. Mikel finished second in the race at last year's meet.

Vils returns to the Division III Championship after finishing eighth with a height of 15-9 in the pole vault at the 2018 meet. He is seeded third this year after reaching a season-best height of 16-9 1/4 at the UW-La Crosse Phil Esten Challenge held April 19.

The top two seeds in the pole vault for this weekend are UW-Whitewater's Zach Jasinski and UW-Stout's Noah Zastrow. Jasinski is seeded first with a height of 17-2 3/4 and Zastrow second with a mark of 17-0. Zastrow was a sixth-place finisher at last year's championship.

Wilburn secured his inaugural trip to the Division III Outdoor Championship with a third-seeded skip of 49-6 1/4 in the triple jump held April 24 at the Drake Relays. Earlier this year he recorded a second-place measurement of 49-1 1/2 at the WIAC Championship and a fifth-place result of 48-4 at the Division III Indoor Championship.

Yorai Shaoul of Massachusetts Institute of Technology is this weekend's top seed in the triple jump with a distance of 49-9. UW-Stevens Point's Tom Kohn is seeded second with a mark of 49-8 1/2. Shaoul placed second in the event at last year's championship.

UW-Oshkosh will have a pair of contestants this weekend in both the 800-meter run and shot put.

In the 800-meter run, Steven Potter is seeded 14th and Nick Freitag 17th with season-best times of 1:51.86 and 1:52.02, respectively. Both Titans, who are running the race at nationals for the first time, earned their qualifiying times at the UW-La Crosse Final Qualifier held May 16. Earlier this month Freitag placed second and Potter fourth with times of 1:53.08 and 1:54.41, respectively, at the WIAC Championship.

The top seed for the 800-meter run is Tuck Cargile from University of Redlands (Calif.). He owns a time of 1:50.27 while Lucas Wright of Hamilton College (N.Y.) ranks second with a time of 1:50.51.

Also making their national outdoor championship debut are Titans Jackson Sheckler and Nick Tegtmeier in the shot put. Sheckler is seeded eighth with a season-best throw of 55-0 from the UW-La Crosse Eagle Open held May 10 and Tegtmeier 12th with a distance of 54-0 1/2 from the Augustana College Twilight Invitational. Tegtmeier took second place at the WIAC Championship with a mark of 53-5.

David Kornack of UW-Eau Claire and defending champion Blaze Murfin of University of Dubuque (Iowa) are seeded first and second in the shot put with measurements of 63-7 and 59-5, respectively. Kornack was a second-place finisher at last year's meet.

Other individual qualifiers to Division III Outdoor Championship from UW-Oshkosh are Justin Rivers in the high jump and Bailey Quinn in the hammer throw. Rivers will make his first appearance at the championship and Quinn his second.

Rivers is seeded 13th in the high jump after leaping to a height of 6-9 at the UW-La Crosse Final Qualifier. He took second place with a measurement of 6-7 at the WIAC Championship.

Jacoby Wolfe of George Fox University (Ore.) is seeded first and Alec Reduker of Massachusetts Institute of Technology second for the meet with heights of 7-0 1/4.

Quinn owns the 19th seed in the hammer throw after registering a distance of 187-7 at the UW-La Crosse Phil Esten Challenge. Quinn, who finished third with a mark of 179-11 at the WIAC Championship, fouled on each of his three throws at last year's national meet.

Zak Dysert of Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) and Cody Wheeler of Augustana College are seeded first and second in the hammer throw with casts of 210-8 and 209-5, respectively. Wheeler was a second-place finisher at last year's championship.

In the relays, UW-Oshkosh is seeded second for the championship at 400 meters and fifth at 1,600.

The 400-meter group of Benjamin Jung, Christian Lopez, Aaron McCarroll-Richardson and Robert Ogbuli qualified with a school-record time of 40.81 seconds while the 1,600-meter contingent of Freitag, Powers, Todd Beadle and Amitai Wheat qualified with a time of 3:12.70. Both quartets earned their seeds at the UW-La Crosse Final Qualifier.

Lopez earned All-America honors as a member of UW-Oshkosh's 400-meter relay that finished sixth at the 2016 championship with a time of 41.21 seconds.

The alternate for the Titans in the 1,600-meter relay is Justin Skinkis.

Saint John's University (Minn.) is seeded first in the 400-meter relay with a time of 40.78 seconds. The 1,600-meter relay has Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) seeded first and Loras College second with times of 3:09.93 and 3:09.99, respectively.

UW-Oshkosh used four All-America performances to place 26th at last year's Division III Championship with 11.33 points.

University of Mount Union (Ohio) scored 36 points to secure its second national title in five years and slip past the 35 points of runner-up North Central College (Ill.).

Completing the list of top five teams from 2018 were third-place Rowan University (N.J.) with 27 points, fourth-place Benedictine University (Ill.) with 26, and fifth-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.J.) and UW-Platteville with 24 apiece.

This season, UW-Eau Claire enters the Division III Championship ranked first in nation by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Following the Blugolds in the rankings are UW-Oshkosh in second, North Central College in third, UW-Platteville in fourth and Washington University in St. Louis in fifth.

The Titans, who captured the 2009 title, have scored at least five points at each of the last 25 national outdoor meets. UW-Oshkosh was the national runner-up in 1990 and a third-place finisher in 2003 and 2013.

2019 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Qualifiers

2019 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Website

2019 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field