Welch's National Title Highlights Day 1 of NCAA DII Championships
The University of Findlay men and women's indoor track and field teams sent 16 athletes to the 2015 NCAA Division II National Championship in Birmingham, Alabama. Six of those athletes competed on Friday, March 13, the first day of the two-day event.
Senior Justin Welch, who was named both Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Field Athlete of the Year and Midwest Region Field Athlete of the Year, continued his dominance and added to an already impressive resume by winning the weight throw with a throw of 72'05".
This throw set a new Birmingham Crossplex facility record. The win is the third national title in his career, back-to-back in the weight throw (just the second DII athlete to win back-to-back titles in weight throw), and an outdoor hammer throw title. Tomorrow Welch will compete in the shot put and, if he can win, would become just the third athlete in DII history to, in the same year, win national titles in both the weight throw and shot put.
Freshman Michael Bruce, who recently was awarded GLIAC Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, earned his first all-American award as an Oiler by finishing on the podium in the long jump. Bruce entered the competition seeded seventh and leaped to a distance of 24'02.25" in his first attempt, earning a fourth place finish. Sophomore Alexander Zolotoglavyy also competed and placed in 14th with a jump of 22'05.00"
Senior Dillon Webster earned himself another trip to the national championship meet in the 800 meter run and qualified for tomorrow's final by running the third fastest qualifying time of the day at 1:50.81. Webster, who was runner-up in this event last season, finished just eight-hundredths of a second behind the first two competitors who each ran 1:50.73 and were separated by seven-thousandths of a second. Webster will go for his first national title tomorrow at 5:10.
Getting his first taste of national championship experience was freshman Sergi Torres who competed in the 400 meter dash preliminaries. Torres sprinted to a time of 48.62 and missed qualifying for the final by less than three-quarters of a second. He took 15th in his heat.
Sophomore Erica King got a taste of championship action as she took 11th in the weight throw with a throw of 57'09.50" while senior Kendra Averesch took 18th with a toss of 53'07.00".
Follow along tomorrow on NCAA.com as the Oilers compete for more hardware.