Titans Heading To NCAA Outdoor Championship

UW-Oshkosh's Kylee Verhasselt seeks her third straight All-America award in the 800-meter run and Becklyn Hunter will compete in four events as the Titans vie for their 11th top-four finish in 13 years this weekend at the NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Waverly, Iowa.

UW-Oshkosh, ranked eighth in the NCAA Division III computer rankings by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association (USTFCCCA), will be sending 10 athletes to compete in a total of 10 events at the national meet hosted by Wartburg College (Iowa) on May 26-28 at Walston Hoover Stadium. Competition, which features 22 entrants in each individual event and 16 teams in both relays, begins at 11 a.m. Thursday (May 26), noon Friday (May 27) and 11:30 a.m. Saturday (May 28).

UW-Oshkosh, which has taken home a top-three trophy at 21 of the 28 national championships since 1988, won a division-record nine national titles in 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011. The Titans also own nine runner-up finishes and three third-place showings in program history.

Last season, UW-La Crosse won its third national championship and first since consecutive titles in 1983-84 by scoring 73 points. The Eagles were followed in the team standings by UW-Eau Claire in a distant second place with 43 points, Washington University (Mo.) in third place with 39, Illinois Wesleyan University fourth with 38, Massachusetts Institute of Technology fifth with 32, North Central College (Ill.) sixth with 28 and UW-Oshkosh seventh with 27.

Washington University enters the national meet listed first in the USTFCCCA rankings, followed by defending champion UW-La-Crosse ranked second, Nebraska Wesleyan University third, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.) fourth, Illinois Wesleyan University fifth, Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) sixth and Massachusetts Institute of Technology seventh.

Verhasselt, who enters the championship seeded ninth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.05, was the national runner-up in the event in 2014 (2:07.05) and the sixth-place finisher last season (2:10.94). She also won the 800-meter title at both the 2015 and 2016 WIAC Outdoor championships and the 2014 and 2015 conference indoor championships. Emily Richards from Ohio Northern University owns top-seeded time of 2:05.54 in the 800-meter race.

Hunter will compete in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and both the 400- and 1,600-meter relays. She heads to the championship seeded second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.23 and 12th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.01. At the 200-meter distance, Hunter trails only Daisy Ogede from Washington University and her time of 24.21 while Tyra Abraham from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges leads the 100-meter field with a time of 11.60.

The UW-Oshkosh 400-meter relay team of Ashley Holicek, Hunter, Emily Reichenberger and Olivia Seeley is seeded seventh with a time of 47.13 and the Titans' 1,600-meter relay quartet of Hunter, Caitlyn McCormick, Taylor Sherry and Verhasselt is seeded eighth with a time of 3:48.33. Buffalo State University (N.Y.) is the favorite in the 400-meter relay with a time of 46.79, and UW-Eau Claire leads the 1,600-meter relay field with a time of 3:10.57.

UW-Oshkosh will also be represented by WIAC outdoor champions Elizabeth Abhold in the hammer throw and Hannah Kuenzi in the 10,000-meter run.

Abhold, who earned her first All-America citation in the 20-pound weight throw at the 2016 indoor championship, is seeded fourth in the hammer throw with a cast of 186-0. Whitney Simmons from the University of Texas at Tyler is the favorite with a heave of 188-7.

Kuenzi is the 20th seed in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 36:08.23. Amy Regan from Stevens Institute of Technology paces the field with a time of 34:09.44.

Rounding out the Titans' national qualifiers are Reichenberger seeded eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.52, Alyssa Ryan seeded 20th in the pole vault with a height of 12-3 1/2, and Sherry seeded 10th in the 100-meter hurdles and 19th in the 400-meter hurdles with times of 14.30 and 1:02.32, respectively.

The Titans will look to unseat national favorites Katherine Pitman from Ithaca College (N.Y.) in the pole vault (13-8 1/2), Madison Renfro from North Central College in the 100-meter hurdles (13.91) and Amanda Frier from Wisconsin Lutheran College in the 400-meter hurdles (1:00.52).

Just 11 programs have ever won an NCAA Division III outdoor title since the championship debuted in 1982. Trailing UW-Oshkosh's nine titles are Christopher Newport University (Va.) with six, Wartburg College with five and three schools are tied with three each.

2016 NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Website