Four Titans To Compete At NCAA Outdoor Championship
UW-Oshkosh qualified four members of its women's track & field team for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship that will be held next weekend at the Veteran's Memorial Field Sports Complex in La Crosse.
Titan Isabella Samuels will be competing on the national stage in the shot put for the second straight year while teammates Megan Leahy in the pole vault, Cara Volz in the triple jump and Lauren Wrensch in the long jump are all first-time qualifiers.
The 37th edition of the three-day NCAA Division III Women's Track & Field Outdoor Championship begins Thursday (May 24) and concludes Saturday (May 26). Competition begins at 10 a.m. both Thursday and Friday (May 25) and 11 a.m. on Saturday. The meet will be held in conjunction with the 45th chapter of the men's championship.
For each women's individual event contested, the top 22 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each relay event contested, the top 16 declared relay teams, one per institution, were accepted into the competition.
Samuels, who received All-WIAC honorable mention recognition as a member of the UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team this past winter, is seeded seventh in the shot. Samuels, a junior, earned her season-best distance of 46-6 1/4 at the UW-Whitewater Drake Alternative Meet held April 28. Victoire Kothor of State University of New York at Brockport is the event's top seed with a measurement of 51-11 1/4.
Samuels placed 12th with a mark of 44-6 3/4 in the shot put at last year's national championship held in Geneva, Ohio. Earlier this season she finished third in the shot put with a distance of 45-6 1/4 at the WIAC Outdoor Championship held May 4-5.
Leahy, a junior, competes as the 11th seed in the pole vault. She recorded her season-best height of 12-4 3/4 at the Benedictine University Invitational held April 7. Katherine Pitman, last year's national runner-up, is seeded first in the pole vault with a height of 14-1 3/4.
Volz, who won the triple jump at this year's WIAC Outdoor Championship with a season-best skip of 39-4 1/2, is seeded sixth for next weekend's national meet. The event's top measurement of 40-11 is owned by Ramapo College's (N.J.) Amber Edwards.
In addition to her victory at the WIAC Outdoor Championship, the sophomore Volz also won the triple jump with a mark of 38-4 3/4 at this year's WIAC Indoor Championship held Feb. 23-24.
Wrensch is the 15th seed in the long jump. She leaped to her season-best distance of 18-10 at the UW-La Crosse Eagle Open held May 13. Avery Maillet of City College of New York is event's top seed with a mark of 19-10 3/4.
Wrensch, a junior, placed 10th with a mark of 17-0 3/4 in the long jump at this year's WIAC Outdoor Championship.
Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) handily won last year's team title with 56 points. The Bears were followed in the standings by Ithaca College (N.Y.) in second place with 37 points, Carthage College and Williams College (Mass.) in third with 33, and Bridgewater College (Va.) and State University of New York at Geneseo in fifth with 29.
UW-Oshkosh qualified four student-athletes for last year's Division III Outdoor Championship but failed to score. UW-Oshkosh had scored at least one point at each of the previous national outdoor meet held since 1986.
UW-Oshkosh owns a division-leading nine national outdoor titles, winning first-place trophies in 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011. The Titans also have nine runner-up finishes and three third-place showings in program history.
This season, UW-Eau Claire enters the Division III Outdoor Championship ranked first in nation by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Following the Blugolds in the rankings are Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.) in second, University of Massachusetts-Boston in third, George Fox University (Ore.) in fourth and Whitworth University (Wash.).
2018 NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Website