Bridgewater State's Higgins, Lighten, Westfield State's Canty, Gilderdale to Compete at NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
Bridgewater State sophomore Matthew Lighten and senior Joshua Higgins and Westfield State seniors William Canty and Lauren Gilderdale will be competing at the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.
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Bridgewater State sophomore Matthew Lighten (Dalton, Mass.) and senior Joshua Higgins (Fitchburg, Mass.) and Westfield State seniors William Canty (S. Grafton, Mass.) and Lauren Gilderdale (Great Barrington, Mass.) will be competing at the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.
The national championship meet will be held on Friday, March 13th and Saturday, March 14th at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Guilford College and Visit Winston-Salem are co-hosting the two-day event.
A native of Dalton, Massachusetts, Lighten is seeded second in the 200-meter run. He recorded his qualifying mark of 21.94 seconds at the MASCAC Championships on February 15th.
Higgins is seeded 20th in the 800-meter run. The Fitchburg, Massachusetts product posted his qualifying time of 1:53.84 yesterday at the Tufts Final Qualifying Meet. Higgins holds the school indoor record in the 800 (1:53.00) which he set on March 3, 2018 at Tufts.
The preliminary race of the 800-meter run will get underway on Friday afternoon at 4:35 PM, with the finals scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 3:50 PM. The preliminary race of the 200-meter dash is slated to take place on Friday afternoon at 5:05 PM, with the finals scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 4:10 PM.
Higgins is making his third appearance at an NCAA Division III Track & Field Championship meet and second at the indoor championships, while Lighten is making his NCAA debut. Higgins competed in the 800-meter run at the 2018 indoor and 2019 outdoor championships, as well as the 4x400-meter relay at the 2018 indoor championships.
Canty is ninth on the performance list in the heptathlon, based on a school record performance he recently turned in at the New England Championships.
Canty qualified for the indoor meet for the first time. The multi-event athlete was an All-American in the decathlon at last year's NCAA Outdoor Championship meet, where he finished seventh.
Gilderdale qualified 17th on the 20 competitor list for the women's 20-lb. weight throw. She has a top performance this season of 17.25 meters. It's the first time she has qualified for the national championship meet.
Competition begins on Friday for Canty at 11:00 a.m., while the women's weight throw for Gilderdale is the first event on the competition slate, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Friday.
For each individual event contested, the top 20 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each relay event contested, the top 12 declared relay teams, one per institution, were accepted into the competition.
Portions of this release courtesy of Bridgewater State and Westfield State Sports Information