Illinois Wesleyan Qualifies Five for NCAA Division III Track Meet;
Two Relay Teams Also Make National Cut

March 10, 2008

A live webcast of the meet will be available at the Ohio Northern web page

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Three women and two men from Illinois Wesleyan have qualified in individual events for the NCAA Division III national indoor track and field championships, to be held this weekend at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio.

The Illinois Wesleyan women’s team, which finished 10th in the national indoor meet last year after placing fourth in the 2006 national meet, have senior Rachel Anderson and sophomores Amanda LaRocca and Mackenzie Clemens among the 200 female competitors this year.

IWU seniors Segun Olopo and Matt Harden are among the 200 male entrants in the meet, competing in run in the 55 and 400 meter events, respectively.

The IWU women’s 4x400 relay team, comprised of Anderson, Clemens, senior Brooke Halcott (Streator, Ill., Ottawa Marquette HS) and sophomore Ali McCoy (Irving, Texas, Episcopal School of Dallas), has also qualified for the national meet with the nation’s best time of 3:51.66, set last weekend at a Wis.-Stevens Point meet. It is the same relay team that placed second in last year’s indoor championships with a time of 3:52.21.

The IWU men's 4x400 relay team also qualified for the NCAA meet at the March 8 Stevens Point “last chance meet” with a run of 3:18.82. The relay team consists of Olopo, Harden, junior Mike Conti (Itasca, Ill., Driscoll Catholic HS) and freshman Noah Dunham (Pontiac, Ill., HS).

The student-athletes qualified for the national meet by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event.

Titan Individual Qualifiers

Anderson (Clinton, Ill. HS) qualified for the 400, the event she won in 2007 and 2006 and was second in the 2005 indoor meet. This winter she has the second fastest qualifying time with a mark of 56.20 seconds, an automatic qualifying standard set on Feb. 2 at the Titan Open.

Clemens (Bloomington, Ill., HS) will participate in the 800, having a school-record qualifying time of 2:14.36, sixth best in the nation and set at the DePauw Invitational on Feb. 16.

LaRocca (Palatine, Ill., HS) qualified in both the 55 and 55 hurdles. She has the fourth best qualifying time in the 55 hurdles, a school record and NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 8.23 seconds set at the conference meet on March 1. Her 55 time of 7.19 seconds is the eighth best in the nation and was set at the Keck Invitational on Feb. 9.

Harden (O'Fallon, Ill., Township HS) has a 400 meter time of 48.99 seconds, seventh best in the nation. He placed fifth in the 55 at the 2006 national indoor meet.

Olopo (Chicago, Brooks School), who placed seventh in the 2007 meet and sixth nationally in 2006, has an automatic qualifying school-record time of 6.31 seconds this winter, third fastest among Division III qualifiers.

NCAA Schedule of Events Involving IWU Athletes Only

Friday, March 14 (Central Time)
4:50 p.m. 55m hurdles women prelims (LaRocca)
5:05 p.m. Men 400 m prelims (Harden)
5:15 p.m. Women 400 prelims (Anderson)
5:25 p.m. Men 55 m  prelims (Olopo)
5:35 p.m. Women 55 m  prelims (LaRocca)
5:55 p.m. Women 800 m  prelims (Clemens)

Saturday, March 15 (Central Time)
2:05  p.m. Women 55 m hurdles final (LaRocca)
2:15  p.m. Men 400 m  final (Harden)
2:25  p.m. Women 400 final (Anderson)
2:35  p.m. Men 55 m final (Olopo)
2:45  p.m. Women 55 m  final (LaRocca)
3:05  p.m. Women 800 m final (Clemens)
4:00  p.m. Men 4 x 400 m relay final
4:15  p.m. Women 4 x 400 m relay final

CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206