Titans Place Eighth At NCAA Outdoor Championship

UW-Oshkosh won the 400-meter relay in school-record time as the Titans finished eighth in the team standings at the NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Championship held May 26-28 in Waverly, Iowa.

UW-Oshkosh, which has won a division-leading nine national titles, scored 20 points to secure its 15th consecutive top-10 finish and 26th overall as Becklyn Hunter and Taylor Sherry both earned a pair of All-America citations.

Illinois Wesleyan University won its third national title and first since 2010 by scoring 42 points to edge the 41 points by runner-up Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio). Washington University (Mo.) placed third with 39 points, UW-La Crosse fourth with 35 points and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.) fifth with 33.

Rounding out the top 10 teams were sixth-place Nebraska Wesleyan University with 30 points, seventh-place Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.) with 28, and a tie for eighth place among the Titans, Ithaca College (N.Y.) and State University of New York at Geneseo with 20 points.

The Titans 400-meter relay squad of Ashley Holicek, Hunter, Emily Reichenberger and Olivia Seeley ran to a time of 46.05 to outpace second-place UW-La Crosse's time of 46.28. The relay quartet, which bettered the previous program record of 47.13 established April 22, recorded the fifth fastest time in women's Division III history.

Hunter finished fourth in the 200-meter dash and Sherry placed in the top eight in both hurdles events. The All-America laurels were the firsts for both Hunter and Sherry.

Hunter had a time of 24.97 while Melanie Winters from Baldwin Wallace University won the 200-meter race in 24.67. Hunter also finished ninth in the qualifying round of the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.06.

Sherry placed fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.31 and eighth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.13. Winters claimed the 100-meter hurdle race with a time of 13.78 while and Ashton Rakow from Nebraska Wesleyan University won the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 59.17.

Sherry broke her own school record in the preliminary round of the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.22, surpassing her previous record time of 14.30 set on May 7.

Also competing for the Titans at the national meet were Hannah Kuenzi in the 10,000-meter run, Elizabeth Abhold in the hammer throw, Reichenberger in the 200-meter dash, Alyssa Ryan in the pole vault, Kylee Verhasselt in the 800-meter run, and the 1,600-meter relay squad of Hunter, Sherry, Caitlyn McCormick and Taylor Pralle.

Kuenzi placed ninth with a time of 36:55.35, Abhold finished 10th with a distance of 172-11, Reichenberger 16th with a time of 24.94, Ryan 17th with a height of 11-11 3/4 and the 1,600-meter relay team 14th with a time of 3:52.57. Verhasselt did not finish the 800-meter race.

NCAA Division III women's individual national champions also included Amy Regan from Stevens Institute of Technology in the 10,000-meter run (35:46.27), Whitney Simmons from the University of Texas at Tyler in the hammer throw (194-0), Baldwin Wallace University's Winters in the 200-meter dash (24.67), Katherine Pitman from Ithaca College in the pole vault (13-9 3/4), Emily Richards from Ohio Northern University in the 800-meter run (2:05.88), and Nebraska Wesleyan University in the 1,600-meter relay (3:41.09).