INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA announced the accepted entries for the 2016 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field National Championships Tuesday afternoon. Slippery Rock will be sending six athletes to the May 26-28 competition in Bradenton, Florida, including five women and one male.
 
The Rock women will be represented by Sam Taylor in the javelin, Kaitlyn Clark in the pole vault, Sabrina Anderson in the heptathlon, Paige Kassab in the high jump and Jenny Picot in the 5,000-meter run.
 
Slippery Rock's men's team will be represented by Jacob VanHouten in the 400-meter hurdles.
 
The six athletes qualified for the national meet is the most for Slippery Rock since the program sent nine to nationals in 2013. SRU sent four athletes last spring and five in 2014.
 
Taylor and Clark will be making their fourth consecutive appearance at nationals, completing their careers by qualifying in every year of their eligibility. All four of SRU's other entries will be making their first appearance at an outdoor national meet.
 
A quick look at the meet can be found below.  A more in depth preview, including coverage options, will be posted next week.
 
DETAILS
• Location: IMG Academy – Bradenton, Florida
• Hosts: University of Tampa and IMG Academy
• Dates: May 26-28
• Schedule of Events: Complete Schedule
• Accepted Entries: Men  |  Women
 
SRU ATHLETES SCHEDULE
• Thursday, May 26
11 a.m. – Women's Heptathlon Day 1 (Sabrina Anderson)
2:30 p.m. – Women's Pole Vault Finals (Kaitlyn Clark)
8:25 p.m. – Men's 400m Hurdles Prelims (Jacob VanHouten)
 
• Friday, May 27
10:30 a.m. – Women's Heptathlon Day 2 (Sabrina Anderson)
 
• Saturday, May 28
2:25 p.m. – Women's Javelin Finals (Sam Taylor)
6 p.m. – Women's High Jump Finals (Paige Kassab)
7:20 p.m. – Men's 400m Hurdles Finals (Jacob VanHouten if qualified)
8:30 p.m. – Women's 5,000m Finals (Jenny Picot)
 
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
Slippery Rock will be led by four-time qualifiers Taylor and Clark, who both recorded automatic qualifying marks and both rank sixth in the nation. Taylor is looking for her third career All-America honor, while Clark is looking for her second straight.
 
TAYLOR: Taylor enters the national meet undefeated on the season in the javelin, having won every event she competed in, including the Adidas Raleigh Relays and the PSAC Championships. She is the sixth seed in the event and is looking for another All-America finish after placing fourth in 2014 and sixth in 2015. Her career-best throw of 49.63 meters came just last week at the PSAC meet when she claimed her second title in the event.
 
CLARK: Clark enters the meet as the sixth seed after her NCAA automatic mark and personal best of 4.00 meters from midway through the spring season. She is coming off another PSAC title in the event last week and finished 12th at nationals last spring to earn her first All-America honor (top 8 are first team All-Americans, 9-12 are second team All-Americans).
 
KASSAB: Kassab is making her first appearance at an outdoor national meet but gained experience at the national level earlier this year when she placed fourth and earned All-America honors in the high jump at the indoor national meet. She is seeded in a tie for 17th with her season-best clearance of 1.71 meters, which is just off the mark that earned her fourth at the indoor national meet. She won the PSAC title last weekend with a 1.69-meter jump.
 
ANDERSON: Anderson will be making her first appearance at an outdoor national meet, but like Kassab, gained experience on the national stage during the indoor season a few months ago. She finished fifth in the pentathlon indoors and broke the all-time PSAC record on the way to earning her first career All-America honor. She will compete in the seven-event heptathlon as the 15th seed after her score of 4,951 points in a winning effort at the PSAC meet last week moved her high enough up the national list to qualify.
 
PICOT: Picot will be competing in her first national meet on the track when she steps to the line for the 5,000-meter run. She is seeded 21st with her Slippery Rock program record of 16:45. She is coming of a PSAC meet in which she placed third in the 10,000-meter run and also placed in the 5,000-meter run.
 
MEN'S PREVIEW
Slippery Rock will be represented by just one male at the national meet in the form of 400-meter hurdler Jacob VanHouten. The Rock nearly got a second athlete into the meet with Adam Leeper in the triple jump, but Leeper missed the cutoff by just 0.04 meters as his PSAC winning jump of 15.00 meters was just off the final qualifier at 15.04m.
 
VANHOUTEN: VanHouten is coming off his first individual PSAC title in the 400-meter hurdles last week and has been dominant in the PSAC all year, posting a career-best of 52.30 seconds. He enters as the 10th overall seed in the event and will have a realistic shot at qualifying for the finals. He also showed incredible speed last week by running the lead leg of SRU's 4x400-meter relay at the PSAC meet and posting a split of 46.97 seconds.
 
PSAC NOTES
The PSAC will be sending a total of 11 men to compete in 12 events at the national meet and a total of 17 women to compete in 13 events. The headline event for the PSAC is the women's javelin, where the conference has qualified five athletes to compete. A complete look at all the PSAC athletes that have qualified and their seed positions can be found below.
 
ACCEPTED ENTRIES – PSAC MEN
100m (22 entries)
18. Andrew Adighibe (Shippensburg)
 
5,000m (20 entries)
11. Elliot Martynkiewicz (Edinboro)
 
400m Hurdles (20 entries)
10. Jacob VanHouten (Slippery Rock)
 
High Jump (19 entries)
2. Jalen Ramsey (Shippensburg)
6. Tra-C Davis (Shippensburg)
 
Pole Vault (19 entries)
8. Derek Horton (Indiana)
 
Shot Put (20 entries)
19. Alec Rideout (Shippensburg)
20. Bryan Pearson (Shippensburg)
 
Discus (20 entries)
8. Bryan Pearson (Shippensburg)
 
Hammer (19 entries)
9. Travis Toth (East Stroudsburg)
12. Caleb Bartlett (Shippensburg)
 
Javelin (19 entries)
6. Derek Nothstein (Shippensburg)

ACCEPTED ENTRIES – PSAC WOMEN
1,500m (21 entries)
11. Summer Hill (California)
 
5,000m (21 entries)
20. Jenny Picot (Slippery Rock)
 
10,000m (21 entries)
7. Ida Narbuvoll (Edinboro)
 
400m Hurdles (23 entries)
15. Erin Madison (Millersville)
 
3,000m Steeplechase (22 entries)
12. Julie Friend (California)
 
High Jump (22 entries)
t-17. Paige Kassab (Slippery Rock)
 
Pole Vault (21 entries)
6. Kaitlyn Clark (Slippery Rock)
21. Emma Sullivan (Kutztown)
 
Long Jump (22 entries)
6. Kaylee Caruso (Bloomsburg)
9. Sarah Hunt (Shippensburg)
 
Triple Jump (22 entries)
17. Sarah Hunt (Shippensburg)
 
Shot Put (24 entries)
16. Tamara Ovejera (Shippensburg)
 
Discus (21 entries)
9. Tamara Ovejera (Shippensburg)
 
Javelin (22 entries)
6. Sam Taylor (Slippery Rock)
8. Morgan DeFloria (Shippensburg)
13. Kelsey Carlsen (Mansfield)
15. Amanda Myers (Millersville)
18. Crystal Hartman (Shippensburg)
 
Heptathlon (16 entries)
15. Sabrina Anderson (Slippery Rock)