NCAA Track & Field Championships To Include 17 Titans
UW-Oshkosh will send 14 men and three women to this weekend's National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
The 48th version of the men's competition and the 40th edition for the women will be held concurrently Thursday through Saturday (May 26-28) at the SPIRE Institute. Activity begins Thursday at 10:30 a.m. (EDT), Friday at 10 a.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.
The top 22 individuals and top 16 relay teams earned their way to the national meet based on results throughout the 2022 outdoor season. The top eight finishers in each event at the championships will receive All-America status.
Leading UW-Oshkosh's list of participants in the men's category is senior Steven Potter. He is seeded sixth in the 800- and 13th in the 1,500-meter runs with times of 1:49.51 and 3:47.71, respectively. Potter finished fourth in the 800-meter run at the 2021 championship.
Junior Jaylen Grant and seniors Aaron McCarroll-Richardson and Robert Ogbuli will represent the Titans in both the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay.
Grant is seeded seventh in the 100-meter dash with a school-record time of 10.37 seconds while McCarroll-Richardson is eighth at 10.40 and Ogbuli 10th at 10.41. Grant placed second in the event at the 2021 championship.
In the 400-meter relay, Grant, McCarroll-Richardson, Ogbuli and sophomore Joey Kean earned the event's second seed with their school-record time of 40.19 seconds. McCarroll-Richardson and Ogbuli helped UW-Oshkosh finish fourth in the event at the 2019 championship and second in 2021. Grant also was a member the Titans' relay squad in 2021.
UW-Oshkosh will have a pair of seniors competing in the shot put as Jackson Sheckler is seeded eighth and Nick Tegtmeier 11th with throws of 54-1 1/4 and 53-6 1/2, respectively. Sheckler finished sixth in the event at the 2019 championship and third in 2021.
Other individual qualifiers for the Titans are freshman Caleb Cornelius, junior Eli Tranel and senior Jonathan Wilburn.
Cornelius is seeded 13th in the high jump with a leap of 6-8 3/4, Tranel fourth in the pole vault with a height of 16-5 1/4 and Wilburn 17th in the triple jump with a measurement of 48-2 3/4. Wilburn placed second in the triple jump at the 2019 championship and fourth in 2021.
UW-Oshkosh's 1,600-meter relay unit of sophomore Rashaad Henderson, juniors Bo Koehn and Ryan Potter, and senior Amitai Wheat is seeded fourth with a school-record time of 3:12.07.
UW-Oshkosh received All-America performances in nine men's events as it finished third at the 2021 Division III Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
UW-Oshkosh accumulated 48 points to mark the 27th consecutive outdoor championship that it had scored at least five points. The Titans captured the 2009 Division III outdoor title and finished second nationally in 1990 and third in 2003, 2013 and 2021.
Wartburg College (Iowa) scored 54 points to win its first Division III outdoor title while defending champion UW-Eau Claire finished second with 49, UW-Oshkosh third, Rowan University (N.J.) fourth with 41 and UW-La Crosse fifth with 39.
In the women's championship, seniors Alexandria Demco and Ashton Keene will race in two events apiece.
Demco is seeded fourth in the 1,500- and eighth in the 800-meter runs with times of 4:26.14 and 2:10.31, respectively. She finished fifth in the 1,500- and sixth in the 800-meter runs at the 2021 championship.
Keene is seeded 12th in the 10,000- and 20th in the 5,000-meter runs with times of 35:43.87 and 16:57.27, respectively. Her time in the 10,000-meter run established a school record.
Junior Katie Fruth will compete for the Titans in the shot put. She is seeded 11th in the event with a distance of 46-1 1/4.
UW-Oshkosh finished seventh in the women's team standings at last year's Division III Championship.
Loras College (Iowa) scored 58 points in 2021 to win its second consecutive NCAA outdoor title. UW-La Crosse finished second with 56 points while State University of New York at Geneseo placed third with 49, Ithaca College (N.Y.) fourth with 38.33 and Johns Hopkins University (Md.) fifth with 34.
UW-Oshkosh accumulated 31 points en route to its seventh-place finish. The performance was the Titans' highest since placing seventh at the 2015 championship.
UW-Oshkosh, which owns a division-record nine national outdoor championships, has now scored at least three points at 33 of the past 34 women's meets. The Titans claimed Division III titles in 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011. UW-Oshkosh also has nine second-place finishes and a trio of third-place listings.
2022 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships Qualifiers: Men • Women
NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field • NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track & Field