FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
2010 Outdoor National Qualifiers
Official Championships Website
May 24, 2010 - The North Central College women's track and field team will be represented by three individuals at the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships, which will be contested from Thursday through Saturday in Berea, Ohio.
The Cardinals' Rachel Secrest has qualified for the fourth consecutive year in the pole vault, while Brandye Jackson heads to nationals for the third straight year in the 100-meter hurdles and Michelle Criscione has qualified for a second straight season in the high jump.
Secrest, a five-time All-American in the pole vault, won both the indoor and outdoor national championships in 2009 before finishing fourth at the indoor championships this season. She enters the outdoor meet seeded third out of 20 competitors with a clearance of 12 feet, 10 1/4 inches recorded at the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Outdoor Championships.
Secrest owns an outdoor personal best of 13'5 1/4", achieved last season, which is the North Central outdoor school record. This year's indoor champion, Anna Heim of Moravian College (Pa.), is the top-seeded vaulter at the outdoor championships (13'8 1/4").
Jackson, meanwhile, is preparing to participate in her sixth national championships and will attempt to earn her fourth All-America certificate. She placed sixth in the 55-meter hurdles indoors and the 100-meter hurdles outdoors in 2009, and placed 10th at the indoor championships in the 55-meter hurdles this season.
Jackson is seeded 13th among 18 competitors with a time of 14.67 seconds, achieving her qualifying mark at the CCIW Outdoor Championships, and owns an all-time personal best of 14.61. Kristen Bates of Messiah College (Pa.), the national champion in the 55-meter hurdles indoors, is the top seed outdoors with a time of 13.99.
Criscione will be making her fifth national championships appearance and will compete in the outdoor championships for the second time. She was an All-American indoors in the high jump in 2009 and looks to add an outdoor All-American certificate to her resume.
Criscione posted a career-best clearance of 5'6" at the Benedictine University Twilight Invitational on Apr. 30 to qualify for the championships, and is currently tied with 11 other individuals for the fifth-best mark in the event. Elizabeth Evans of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Ind.) has the top mark in the 20-competitor field (5'8 1/2").
This year's championships will be contested at Baldwin-Wallace College's Tressel Field at Finnie Stadium. The women's pole vault will be one of the first events contested, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. The women's high jump will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. The preliminary heats for the women's 100-meter hurdles will be held at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, with the finals to start at 1:45 p.m. ET on Saturday.
