NCAA Women's Indoor Championships To Include Four Titans
Junior Cheyenne Moore and senior two-time All-American Emily Reichenberger will both compete in two events as UW-Oshkosh sends four athletes to this weekend's NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
Competition begins at 10 a.m. on both Friday (March 9) and Saturday (March 10) at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
Moore qualified in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs while Reichenberger will vie for national individual titles in the 60- and 200-meter dashes.
UW-Oshkosh will also be represented by sophomore Cara Volz in the triple jump and junior Lauren Wrensch in the long jump. Volz and Wrensch will be competing at the national meet for the first time.
The top 17 performers in each of the 15 individual events and the 12 fastest relay teams earned qualification to the Division III Championship based on performances throughout the indoor season. The top eight finishers in each event at the national meet earn All-America status.
Moore, who finished 14th in the 5,000-meter run at last year's NCAA meet, is in the 3,000-meter field for the first time. She enters the 2018 championship seeded fifth in the 3,000-meter race with a qualifying time of 9:43.12 and seeded 10th at 5,000-meters with a time of 17:04.13.
Ohio Northern University's Emily Richards, the reigning Division III champion in the 800-meter and mile runs, is seeded first in this year's 3,000-meter race with a time of 9:23.61. Katherine Cook from Bates College (Maine) is seeded first in the 5,000-meters with a time of 16:39.07.
Reichenberger enters this year's national championship seeded ninth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.01 seconds and 12th in the 60-meter dash at 7.72. She claimed All-America honors with a sixth-place finish at 60 meters in 2017 and an eighth-place effort at 200 meters in 2016. Reichenberger also placed 10th in the 200-meter dash at the 2015 NCAA indoor meet and 12th in the event a year ago.
Wadeline Jonathas from University of Massachusetts at Boston is the top seed in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes with respective times of 7.43 and 24.32 seconds. Jonathas, who finished second at 200 meters last season, is the top seed and defending Division III champion in the 400-meter run while also entering as the favorite in the long jump this season with a division-leading distance of 20-7 1/4.
Volz is the 14th seed in the triple jump with a top distance of 38-4 3/4 while Wrensch is seeded 15th in the long jump with a qualifying leap of 18-5 1/4. Amber Edwards from Ramapo College (N.J.) is the top seed in the triple jump with a mark of 40-4 3/4.
Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) claimed its first indoor title a year ago by compiling 44 points. The Bears were followed in the standings by second-place Ithaca College (N.Y.) with 41.25 points, third-place George Fox University (Ore.) with 31 and fourth-place Williams College (Mass.) with 30.5.
UW-Oshkosh, which has scored at least 11 points at 29 of the past 30 championships, placed 56th last year with three points. A total of 70 teams scored points at the 2017 championship.
The Titans own a division-leading nine indoor track & field national titles, claiming championships in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2014. UW-Oshkosh was also the national runner-up in 1990, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2010, 2012 and 2015.
NCAA Division III Men's & Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships - NCAA.com Website
NCAA Division III Men's & Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships - Host Website