Nine MASCAC Student-Athletes Qualify for NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships
After finishing in the top 20 nationally in their respective events, nine MASCAC student-athletes will be heading to Geneva, Ohio for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships which begins on Thursday, May 23.
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After finishing in the top 20 nationally in their respective events, nine MASCAC student-athletes will be heading to Geneva, Ohio for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships which begins on Thursday, May 23.
Jayci Andrews, Ryan Bain, Kira Gilbreath, Joshua Higgins and Joshua Moore from Bridgewater State, Christian McWhinnie-Armstead of Fitchburg State, Colin McCabe of Massachusetts Maritime and William Canty and Lexi Popp of Westfield State are the MASCAC qualifiers for this year's championship.
For Bridgewater State, Andrews is seeded first in the 100-meter hurdles and seventh in the 400-meter hurdles. She recorded her qualifying and BSU school-record time of 13.86 seconds in the 100 hurdles at the NEICAAA Championships on May 11th. Andrews also posted her qualifying time of 1:01.58 in the 400 hurdles at the Division III New England Championships on May 4th.
Gilbreath, who is making her second straight appearance at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, is seeded 18th in the shot put. She recorded her qualifying mark of 44 feet, 6.25 inches (13.57m) at the MASCAC Championships on April 27th. Last year, Gilbreath finished 22nd in the shot put at the 2018 outdoor championships. She holds the Bears' outdoor record in the shot put (44'10.25"/13.67m) which she set a year ago at the MASCAC Championships.
Higgins is making his second appearance at an NCAA Division III Track & Field Championship meet and first at the outdoor championships, while Bain and Moore are both making their NCAA debuts. Higgins competed in the 800-meter run and the 4x400-meter relay at the 2018 indoor championships.
A native of Cape May, New Jersey, Moore is seeded eighth in the javelin. He recorded his school record and qualifying mark of 199 feet, six inches (60.81m) at the UMass Dartmouth Corsair Classic on March 30th.
Higgins is seeded 15th in the 800-meter run. The Fitchburg, Massachusetts product posted his qualifying time of 1:51.87 earlier this week at the MIT Final Qualifier. Higgins holds the school indoor record in the 800 (1:53.00) and was a part of both (indoor/outdoor) BSU record-setting 4x400-meter relay squads.
Bain, who hails from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is seeded 18th in the javelin. He recorded his qualifying mark of 194 feet, seven inches (59.32m) at the 12th Annual Eastern Invitational on April 19th.
Fitchburg State's McWhinnie-Armstead is making his first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships after qualifying as the 10th seed in the men's high jump. His leap of 2.07 meters was made at the Jim Sheehan Memorial Invitational back on April 6th. McWhinnie-Armstead will compete on Friday at 2 pm in the high jump finals.
McCabe of Massachusetts Maritime has the fourth-best shot put throw in the nation to place him in the fourth seed for this weekend's meet. At the NEICAA Championship, he threw it 17.37 meters to break his own school record. He has competed in nine meets this season, winning eight straight to end the season. The only meet he did not win was the first meet of the spring in which he finished second. McCabe will make his first appearance on the national stage Friday at 11:30 am.
Popp enters the women's 400 hurdles as the 10th seed, with a qualifying time of 1:01.75 which she ran at the MIT Last Chance qualifier meet on Thursday.
Popp is in her second straight year of qualifying for the 400 hurdles. At last year's championship meet in La Crosse, Wisc., she finished 18th. Popp also qualified for the NCAA Indoor meet earlier this year in the 400 meters, where she earned All-America honors with a seventh-place finish in the finals after winning her qualifying heat.
Popp will run in the 400 hurdle prelims on Thursday at 4:25 p.m.
Canty heads for the men's decathlon as the fourth seed. He recently won the New England All-Divisions Decathlon title with a school record score of 6,765 points. Canty qualifies for the national championship meet for the first time.
The decathlon events begin Thursday at 10:30 a.m. with the 100 meters and end with the 1,500 meters on Friday at 4:30 p.m., with five events contested each day.
Portions of this release courtesy of Bridgewater State and Westfield State Sports Information