(Portions of this story taken from Centre, DePauw and Millsaps website)
DELAWARE, Ohio - The 2011 NCAA Division III Track and Field National Championships opened up Thursday hosted by Ohio Wesleyan. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) had a good showing led by senior Courtney Lauer of DePauw who closed out the first day sixth in the heptathlon.
Lauer totaled 2,828 points and is tied with Caitlin Wilson of Central College. Emma Dewart of Ithaca leads with 3,079 points, followed by Kelly Curtis of Springfield (2967), Kaney Helland of Gustavus Adolphus (2874), Camesha Goods of Wartburg (2852) and Ashley Bault of Marietta (2833).
Competing in her first NCAA Championships, Elizabeth Krug of Hendrix tallied a total of 2705 points after the first day of competition in the heptathlon good enough for 13th place.
Centre senior Kasey Jackson qualified for the finals of the 400 meter hurdles. Jackson competed in the second heat of preliminaries on Thursday, May 28 and finished the race in a time of 1:01.27, which was the third fastest time in the heat and a new school record. She held the previous school record with a time of 1:02.22.
Three heats took place for the women's 400
meter hurdles and the top two finishers from each heat plus the
next two best times advanced to the finals that will take place on
Saturday, May 28.
Millsaps' Erica Cook ran the first of her two preliminary heats
this evening, finishing tenth. Her time of 25.15 placed her two
spots out of the qualifiers for the finals on Saturday.
Rhodes junior Taylor Stephens finished 10th in the women's 10,000
with a time of 36:53.11.
Junior Emily Niehaus was supposed to compete in the hammer throw on Thursday, but the event was moved to early Friday morning.
To follow all of the 2011 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships including today's live stats, click here.