Outdoor Track Team Sending 17 to National Championship
The University of Findlay men's and women's outdoor track and field teams will be sending a total of 17 athletes to the NCAA Division II National Championship, which is scheduled to take place on May 23-25 at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl in Pueblo, Colo.
Ten student-athletes from the fifth-ranked men's team will compete for the Oilers alongside seven more individuals from the women's squad, making this the largest group head coach Marc Arce has had at the NCAA Division II National Championship.
Senior Derrick Vicars will lead the men's squad and is scheduled to compete in three events.
Vicars will look to defend his outdoor national title in the shot put and is the early favorite to do just that as he is the top-seed in the event with a mark of 19.62 meters. He is also seeded fourth in the discus (55.93m) and fifth in the hammer throw (61.89m).
A three-time All-American during the outdoor season, Vicars was recently named the 2013 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Field Athlete of the Year. He won a conference title in the shot put this season and is also a former national champion in the discus, winning a title during the 2010 campaign.
The Genoa, Ohio native is a school record holder in all three events.
The Oilers will also have three other individuals take part in the shot put during the championship as junior Taylor Miller, senior Darren Bass and sophomore Marcus Vicars have all qualified in the event.
Miller, and All-American last year during the outdoor season, is ranked fourth nationally in the shot put at 18.51 meters and is followed by Bass (17.49m) and Vicars (17.12m), who are seeded tenth and 15th, respectively.
Senior John Guagenti qualified for the national championship in two events as he will take part in the 400-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay.
The Bluffton, Ohio native is seeded ninth in the 400 at 46.95 and will team with senior Tim Sanders, sophomore Dillon Webster and freshman Darren Johnson in the 4x400, where they will be seeded sixth with a time of 3:10.20.
Guagenti has been named All-American three times during the outdoor season and holds school records in both events. Sanders, Webster and Johnson meanwhile will all be looking for their first All-American honors during the outdoor season as all three of them collected the accolades during the indoor campaign this year.
Webster will also run in the 800-meter, where he is seeded 12th with a time of 1:50.42 while junior Tim Majoy will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and enters the event ranked 15th with a time of 9:05.31.
The Oilers final competitor on the men's side is sophomore Corey Shank, who is seeded third in the pole vault with a mark of 5.20 meters.
Shank is the school record holder in the event for the Oilers during the outdoor season.
Senior Jessica Rowland will lead the women's team and compete in three events.
Rowland enters the championship as the top-seed in the hammer throw at 64.09 meters. She is also scheduled to compete in the shot put (14.14m) and discus (46.21m), where she is seeded 18th and 21st, respectively.
The Germantown, Ohio native won the hammer throw and javelin at the GLIAC Championship this year and was an All-American in the hammer last year for the Oilers during the outdoor campaign.
Rowland is a school record holder in all three events.
Sophomore Kendra Averesch will be making the trip to nationals to compete in the shot put, where she is ranked tenth at 14.75m, while sophomore Pam Showman is seeded 13th in the heptathlon with 4,877 points, a school record.
Senior Christine Zimmermann will compete in two events for the Oilers at the championship event as she is scheduled to run in the 800-meter as well as the 4x400-meter relay.
Zimmermann, who earned All-American accolades during the 2011 outdoor season in the 4x400, is seeded 16th in the 800 at 2:11.10. She will team with freshman Maud Sanmiquel, sophomore Shelby Stump and freshman Kirsten Gaerke in the 4x400 as they are ranked 15th with a time of 3:46.00.