Men's Entries /
Women's Entries /
Meet Schedule
ABILENE – The ACU men's track and field team won't have to rely on just four athletes to try and win a national championship next week at the NCAA Division II outdoor championship meet.
Instead they'll rely on nine athletes in 11 events and one relay team to try and win the program's 19th NCAA Division II outdoor national championship and the school's 57th NCAA Division II national championship overall.
The women's team, on the other hand, will have a tall order just to finish in the top 20 at the meet as the Wildcats qualified just four athletes in four events and won't have either relay team in the field.
This year's outdoor championship meet will get started next Thursday, May 26, and will conclude on Saturday, May 28, at the Al Brenda Track at Warrior Stadium on the Cal State-Stanislaus campus in Turlock, Calif.
Eight of the nine ACU men who qualified for the national meet will compete in two events, led by
Amos Sang, the defending outdoor national champion in both the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. He's ranked No. 1 in the nation in the 5000 meters and No. 2 in the 10,000 meters going into the national meet.
Nick Jones – who won the national championship in the discus in 2008 and 2009 before red-shirting in 2010 – returns to the national meet as the top-ranked discus thrower in the nation. He's also competing in the shot put, entering the meet ranked No. 3 in the nation in that event.
Ramon Sparks – who won the triple jump in March to join Sang, Jones and
Desmond Jackson as the Wildcat foursome who won the indoor team national championship by themselves – is the 2009 outdoor national champion in the triple jump, and enters this year's meet ranked No. 4 in the triple jump and No. 8 in the long jump.
Jackson has worked himself into one of the top sprinters in the nation, regardless of division, and he enters the national meet ranked No. 1 in both the 100 meters (10.10) and 200 meters (20.58 seconds). He'll also run the second leg on ACU's top-ranked 4x100 relay team, which clocked a nation's best time of 39.80 seconds earlier this season.
Other ACU athletes who will perform in multiple events are Paris Robertson (100 meters, 200 meters, 4x100 relay),
Andrew McDowell (110 hurdles, 4x100 relay), Lavance Williams (long jump, 4x100 relay) and
Tyler Fleet (discus, hammer). The only other qualifier for the Wildcats is Timothy Jones, who enters the meet ranked No. 5 in the nation in the triple jump.
The men's 4x100 relay could be one of the best races of the event with the top four teams in the country each checking with sub-40-second times, led by ACU's time of 39.80. Lincoln (Mo.) is No. 2 at 39.83, two-time defending team national champion St. Augustine's is No. 3 at 39.58 and Texas A&M-Kingsville is fourth at 39.98.
On the women's side, the Wildcats' qualifiers are led by triple jumper Amanda Ouedraogo, who is ranked No. 1 in the nation in the triple jump. Defending national champion
Paige Newby is ranked No. 3 in the discus, while
Chloe Susset is ranked No. 7 in the 3000 steeplechase and
Sydney Smith is 12th in the 100 meters.
