Four Titans To Compete At NCAA Women's Track & Field Championship

Elizabeth Abhold, Kasey Ederer, Emily Reichenberger and Taylor Sherry will represent UW-Oshkosh at the NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship this weekend in Grinnell, Iowa.

Competition at the national meet, which features 17 participants in each of the 15 individual events and 12 teams in two relay races, begins at 10 a.m. on both Friday (March 11) and Saturday (March 12) at Grinnell College's Charles Benson Bear '39 Recreation and Athletic Center.

Abhold and Sherry are seeded fifth in the 20-pound weight throw and 60-meter hurdles, respectively.

Abhold's qualifying cast of 58-10 was the second best in the WIAC this season, trailing only UW-Stout's Lydia Meier, whose heave of 62-9 1/2 led the country.

Sherry enters the national championship with a qualifying time of 8.69 seconds. She earned two All-America awards at last year's meet after finishing fourth in the pentathlon with 3,462 points and seventh in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.90 seconds.

Sara Johnson from Ohio Wesleyan University is the top seed in this year's 60-meter hurdles race with her qualifying time of 8.66 seconds.

Ederer will compete in the high jump at the national championship for the third consecutive season. She is seeded 11th after qualifying with a leap of 5-6 1/2. Gladys Njoku from Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.) is the top seed with her qualifying height of 5-8 3/4.

Reichenberger, who is making her second straight appearance at the national championship, qualified with a time of 25.52 seconds. UW-La Crosse's Meg Heafy paces the 200-meter dash contestants with her division-leading time of 24.86 seconds.

UW-Oshkosh, which has claimed three of the last five and a division-record nine indoor national championships overall, placed second last season with 49 points. The Titans won championships in 1994-96, 2004-06, 2011 and 2013-14.

UW-La Crosse captured its first title last season with 55 points. Illinois Wesleyan University finished third with 39 points while Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UW-Eau Claire tied for fourth with 34.

Illinois Wesleyan University enters this year's championship ranked first in the nation by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The top-ranked Titans, who are sending 11 athletes to Iowa, are followed in the listings by second-ranked UW-La Crosse, third-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology, fourth-ranked Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) and fifth-ranked Washington University (Mo.).

Rounding out the USTFCCCA's top 10 teams are sixth-ranked UW-Eau Claire, seventh-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan University, eighth-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology, ninth-ranked State University of New York at Oswego, and 10th-ranked Ithaca College (N.Y.).

2016 NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship Website • National

2016 NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship Website • Local Host

2016 NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship Website • USTFCCCA