Five men, two women selected to compete in 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships
By Tim Glon
| NCAA Men's Championships Site | NCAA III Men's Qualifiers (.pdf)
| NCAA Women's Championships Site | NCAA III Women's Qualifiers (.pdf) |
ADA — Five Ohio Northern men and two ONU women were selected to participate at the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday at Virginia Beach, Va.
On the men's side, senior All-American Keegan Digby (Bowling Green/Otsego) and junior All-American Jordan Dean (Cleveland/Villa Angela-St. Joseph) were selected as individuals.
Fifth-year senior Hunter Kesler (Paulding), junior Ross Schlatter (Curtice/Genoa), senior Trey Myers (Dayton/Chaminade-Julienne) and Dean were selected to participate in the 4x400 relay.
Two field athletes on the women's team were picked as junior Izzy Burman (Benton Ridge/Liberty Benton) and sophomore Claire Schweller (Paulding) earned invitations to the meet.
The top 20 individuals and top 12 relay teams in each event earned invitations to the meet. The top eight finishers in each event earn All-America honors.
Digby is a three-time All-American in the shot put, having finished fourth indoors in 2023. He was also sixth outdoors in 2023 and seventh outdoors in 2022.
He is seeded fifth nationally with a school record toss of 17.29 meters this season.
Digby will compete on Saturday at 11 am.
Dean is making his second NCAA III Championships appearance and is the only Polar Bear competing in two events.
He is seeded eighth in the 400-meter dash with a school-record effort of 48:40, which converts to a 47.64 on a banked track.
Dean earned All-American honors with an eighth place finish in :48.03 at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
He will compete in the prelims on Friday at 3:25 pm. The finals are slated for Saturday at 4:40 pm.
The 4x400 relay squad ran a 3:17.48 on Saturday at the Mount Union Final Qualifer to move up from 14th to 11th nationally and get into the meet.
Their time converts to a 3:14.38 on a 200-meter banked track and they are seeded 11th.
This will be the second NCAA Appearance for all four members of the relay team, who finished 11th at the 2023 NCAA Championships in 3:14.07.
The preliminaries of the 4x400 relay are Friday at 5:55 pm and the finals will be Saturday at 6:40 pm.
Burman shattered her own school record in the weight throw with a toss of 17.90 meters on Saturday at Mount Union, 46 centimeters better than her prior best of 17.44.
She moved from 17th to 14th on the national list and will also be making her first NCAA Championships appearance.
Burman will compete on Friday at 3:30 pm.
Schweller won the pole vault at Mount Union on Saturday with a career-best height of 3.90 meters, a full .15 of a meter better then her previous best.
She now sits sixth in the country and qualified for the Championships for the first time in her career.
Schweller moves into a tie for second on ONU's career list with her 12' 9.5" height.
She will compete on Friday at 11 am.