ABILENE - Abilene Christian's nationally ranked men's and women's track and field teams are in action starting today at the
NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championships. The three-day meet runs through Saturday night at the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl on the campus of Colorado State-Pueblo.
Live streaming of the championships is available at
NCAA.com, while live results can be accessed via
PTTiming.com.
The program, led by third-year head coach Roosevelt Lofton, is being represented by four relays and 21 student-athletes, including multi-athletes Parker Petty and Cassie Brooks, who this morning will begin their two-day competitions in the decathlon and heptathlon.
Hammer thrower Baptiste Kerjean and long jumpers LeVance Williams, Darian Hogg, and Karla Hope also will compete later today in the finals of their respective events, however, sprinters Jordan Geary (400m), Paris Robertson (100m), Shennae Steele (100m) and distance runner Chloe Susset (steeplechase) must first qualify for finals though this afternoon's preliminary rounds.
Steele also will partake in the prelims of the 4x100-meter relay today at 4:50 p.m. along with Sydney Smith, Karolyn Palmer, and Lexus Williams.
Prelims for the men's 4x100m relay commence 10-minutes afterward and will include the ACU quartet of Dennis Bain, Geary, Robertson, and LeVance Williams.
Friday's ACU action is headlined by All-Americans
Nick Jones and Amanda Ouedraogo. Jones will be trying to become the first male athlete in NCAA history to win four national championships in the discus in a career, while Ouedraogo is attempting to win her second national triple jump title of 2012. Ouedraogo is the reigning NCAA Division II indoor national champion in the event, and she was the runner-up at last year's NCAA Division II outdoor championship meet.
Jones also will compete in the finals of Saturday's shot put, as will LeVance Williams in the triple jump. All of Saturday's events are finals.
800-meter runners Banjo Jaiyesimi and Ayesha Rumble compete for the first time during Friday's slate of prelim events, which also include the men's and women's 200m (Steele, Geary, Robertson), sprint hurdles (Lexus Williams, Kevin Johnson, Bain) and 4x400m relays.
The ACU men is the defending outdoor national champion and enters the meet having won five of the last seven outdoor national championships with titles in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011). The Wildcats have won 19 NCAA Division II outdoor national championships.
The ACU women have won 10 NCAA Division II outdoor national championships, but haven't brought home the championship trophy since winning it in 2008 in Walnut, Calif.
