SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Six members of the Slippery Rock University track and field teams will compete at the NCAA Division II National Championships Thursday through Saturday at the Irwin Belk Complex on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
MEET INFO
•  Dates: May 24-26
•  Schedule: Complete Schedule (PDF)
•  Location: Irwin Belk Complex at Johnson C. Smith University
•  All-Americans: Places 1-8 named first team, places 9-12 named second team
•  Start Lists / Entry Lists
 
LIVE COVERAGE
•  Live Results: LINK
•  Live Video: LINK
•  Live Updates: Twitter
 
SRU SCHEDULE THURSDAY
•  2 p.m. – Women's Pole Vault (Courtney McQuaide, Maddy Marshall)
 
SRU SCHEDULE FRIDAY
•  4 p.m. – Men's Discus (JJ Ollio)
•  6:40 p.m. – Men's 110m Hurdles Prelims (Ian Nieves)
 
SRU SCHEDULE SATURDAY
•  12:30 p.m. – Men's Pole Vault (Jordan Pacheco)
•  1:15 p.m. – Women's Javelin (Elaina Powell)
•  3:40 p.m. – Men's Shot Put (JJ Ollio)
•  4:05 p.m. – Men's 110m Hurdles Final (Ian Nieves, if qualified)
 
MEN'S PREVIEW
Slippery Rock will send three men to compete in four events, with JJ Ollio set to compete in both the discus and the shot put. Ollio and Ian Nieves are both making their debut appearance at a National Championship event, while Jordan Pacheco will be competing in his fourth career national meet.
 
Pacheco has previously earned one All-America honor in his other three trips to nationals. He enters the competition seeded 17th with a season-best clearance of 5.05 meters. A total of 20 men were accepted to compete in the pole vault with the top seed being 5.35 meters and the final seed being 5.03 meters. Pacheco will be joined by fellow PSAC competitors Derek Horton (Indiana) and Brandon Raguz (Kutztown).
 
Nieves is the highest seeded SRU entry on the men's side and enters the prelims of the 110-meter hurdles ranked 16th with his SRU record time of 14.14 seconds. He is the lone representative from the Atlantic Region to qualify in the event. A total of 20 men will compete in the prelims with the top seed being 13.57 seconds and the final seed being 14.25 seconds.
 
Ollio will compete in both the shot put and the discus after recording career bests in both events two weeks ago in the final meet of the season. His shot put mark of 17.30 meters ranks 19th and is tied for the final mark that was accepted into the competition, while the top mark in the 20-man field is 19.27 meters. Ollio is the only PSAC athlete in the field for the shot put. He will also compete in the discus, where his SRU record of 52.81 meters ranks 18th out of the 20 accepted entries. The top seed is 58.73m, while the final seed is 52.57m. He will be joined in that event by two other PSAC athletes in Bryan Pearson (Shippensburg) and Luke Hoffman (Kutztown).
 
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
Slippery Rock will send three women to compete in two different events at the national meet and all three are seeded in a position that could result in All-America honors.
 
The highest seeded SRU athlete is Courtney McQuaide, who enters the pole vault ranked fifth in the nation with her clearance of 4.04 meters. Maddy Marshall enters the field ranked 11th in the nation at 3.91 meters. McQuaide is making her fifth career appearance at a national meet and is coming off a first team All-America (fifth place) finish at the indoor championships back in March. Marshall is making her fourth straight appearance at a national meet, having now qualified in every season of her career. The women's pole vault field is the deepest in the entire meet with 24 accepted entries. The top seed stands at 4.26 meters, while the final seed is 3.80 meters. A total of four PSAC athletes will compete in the event, as Shippensburg's Kali Hepner and Mansfield's Charlsie Bowen will join the SRU duo.
 
Elaina Powell is also seeded in an All-America position as she enters her first career national meet ranked 11th in the javelin with a throw of 47.05 meters. A total of 20 women were accepted into the field for the javelin with the top seed standing at 50.98 meters and the final seed being 44.56 meters. Powell will be surrounded by familiar faces, as the PSAC has a total of four entries in the event, including Shippensburg's Crystal Hartman and Morgan DeFloria and Millersville's Amanda Myers.
 
RECAPS AND RESULTS
Recaps and results from each day of the national meet will be posted to www.RockAthletics.com after the final SRU event of each day. Stay tuned to Twitter (@Rock_Athletics) during the scheduled competition times for live updates and results.
 
 
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