INDIANAPOLIS -- In a list released Saturday morning, 19 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference track and field athletes were selected to compete at the 2018 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships on May 24-26 at the Veteran's Memorial Field Sports Complex in La Crosse, Wis.
Texas Lutheran University and Trinity University will each be represented by nine student-athletes, while Colorado College will send one.
On the men's side, the Bulldogs qualified in both relays, the shot put and the 400 meter dash.
Marquis Brown will make his school-record fourth appearance in an NCAA outdoor championship. Brown made the championship field in the 400 for a fourth straight time, and he will race in the 400 and as a member of the 4x100 and the 4x400 relays. Brown is the 10th-fastest qualifier in the 400, with a season-best time of 47.75.
Junior thrower Garrett Garza is the first TLU male to qualify for the championships in a field event. Garza is going to nationals in the shot put and is seeded ninth with his school-record toss of 54 feet, 0 inches.
The 4x100 team of sophomore Paris Foster, freshman Michael Wong, sophomore Darren Jones and Brown bring NCAA DIII's third-fastest time into the meet. The Bulldogs have a qualifying time of 41.05. The 4x400 relay team qualified ninth with a time of 3:14.00. The Bulldogs' lineup for the national meet will include: senior Zachary Velasquez, freshman Eli Augusta, Wong and Brown.
Trinity also has qualifiers in the 4x100 meter relay, as well as the discus and 110 meter hurdles.
Trinity's Love is seeded sixth in the men's discus with a mark of 52.60 meters, and teammate Cody Hall is 15th in the 110-meter hurdles, posting a time of 14.51 seconds. The 4x100-meter relay team of Stewart, Matta, Martin, and Walker stands at #16, with a qualifying time of 41.39 seconds.
Colorado College rounds out the men's participants, as Henry Baldwin qualified for the national meet in the high jump with a school-record leap of 6'9" on May 13 at the Occidental Invitational. That jump placed him in a tie for the 20th-best height in Division III this season and he qualified in the 20th and final spot.
On the women's side, Texas Lutheran sends two athletes while Trinity University sends three.
For the Bulldogs, Ashley Rynard was the 21st qualifier for the 800. A sophomore, Rynard will make her first national championship appearance. She is the first TLU Women's Track & Field national qualifier in a middle-distance race. Cortnee Priour advances to the national meet for a second consecutive year. She qualified again in the long jump. Priour is the 13th qualifier with a mark of 18 feet, 10 3/4 inches. She finished 16th at the national championships in 2017.
The Tigers will be represented by Britney Sullivan, Nkolika Nweke and Molly McCullough.
Sullivan will compete in two women's events, the long jump and triple jump. She is seeded fifth in the triple jump at 12.04 meters and 22nd in the long jump with a mark of 5.71 meters. The 2018 event will mark the fourth consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships for Sullivan. She placed 12th in last year's triple jump, came in at #10 in 2016, and was 19th in 2015.
McCullough is sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, posting a time of 10:41.94. McCullough placed 15th in last season's 3,000-meter steeplechase, missing qualifying for the finals by just over a second. She became Trinity's third cross country All-American last fall with a 38th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships.
Nweke enters the 100 meters in the 14th slot at 12.08 seconds. Nweke turned in a 16th-place performance at last year's NCAA Outdoors 100 meters event.
With six more than last year, this is believed to be the most student-athletes the SCAC has sent to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
