FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

2012 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships Qualifiers

Schedule of Events

May 20, 2012 - The North Central College men's track and field team will have a total of 13 entries in eight events at its disposal as it prepares to go for its third straight team title in this year's NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, to be held May 24-26 at Fritz B. Burns Stadium in Claremont, Calif.

The top 20 declared student-athletes in each event, based on their outdoor performances since Mar. 1, were accepted into the competition. The final list of qualifiers was released on Sunday.

The fourth-ranked Cardinals will have a total of 14 student-athletes competing at the championships, including two national champions and 10 All-Americans. North Central will have five competitors in the pole vault alone, making it one of two teams with five entries in a single event. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has five individuals set to compete in the long jump.

Josh Winder, the 2012 indoor national pole vault champion, ranks second in the field with a clearance of 17 feet, 4 1/2 inches, while 2011 outdoor national champion Peter Geraghty and four-time All-American John Wood are tied for third (17'0 3/4") and another four-time All-American, Thomas Stacey, is tied for sixth (16'5 1/4"). Frank Wleklinski will compete in his first national-championship event, ranking 15th in the field (16'1 1/4").

North Central's 4-by-400-meter relay team of Jonathan Caron, Bai Kabba, Dionte Hackler and Jon Howard enter the weekend with the top qualifying time (3 minutes, 11.65 seconds). Kabba and Hackler won individual national titles as members of the Cardinals' indoor 4x400 relay team in March, while Caron and Howard were members of North Central's national-champion relay quartet in 2010. Howard has also qualified as the seventh-fastest entry in the 400-meter dash (47.79) after qualifying for both the indoor and outdoor championships in 2011 and earning All-America honors indoors.

Distance runner Dan Kerley has also qualified in two events, ranking as the eighth-fastest qualifier in the 10,000-meter run (29:58.23) and 17th-fastest in the 5,000-meter run (14:29.47). An All-American last season in the 10,000, Kerley will toe the line in the 5,000 alongside teammate John Crain, who will participate in his first national championship after qualifying 10th in the field with a time of 14:24.15.

Zach Heerspink will be making his fourth national-championship appearance in the high jump, matching the fourth-best performance in the field with a height of 6'10 1/4". Heerspink earned his first All-America certificate at the 2011 indoor championships. 

The Cardinals have two other first-time national qualifiers, as Pat Foley is the 18th-fastest qualifier in the 800-meter run (1:51.93) and Mike Giaquinto is 19th nationally in the javelin throw (198'11").

Coverage of this weekend's national championships will be available at northcentralcardinals.com as well as the Cardinals' Facebook and Twitter accounts. A link to live event-by-event results will be posted as soon as it is made public.