BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Five members of the Bridgewater State University track & field teams have all qualified for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships which will get underway next week.
Seniors Josh Goehring (Haverhill, Mass.), Conor Murtagh (Walpole, Mass.) and Danielle Poto (North Andover, Mass.), junior Samantha Richner (Hanson, Mass.) and freshman Jayci Andrews (Plymouth, Mass.) will be competing in the national championship meet which will take place from May 26th to May 28th at Walston-Hoover Stadium on the campus of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
Goehring is making his second straight appearance at the outdoor championships. He is seeded 18th in in the 800-meter run with a qualifying and school-record time of 1:51.09. Goehring recorded his record-setting time at the NEICAAA Championships.
Murtagh is headed to an NCAA championship meet for the fifth straight season (three outdoor, two indoor). He is ranked third in all of Division III with a qualifying and school-record time of 14.13 seconds. Murtagh also posted his qualifying mark at the NEICAAA Championships.
Poto is making her first appearance at the NCAA Track & Field Championships. She is seeded 15th in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 35:59.46. Poto recorded her career-best mark at the Division III New England Championships.
Richner is also making her first NCAA appearance. She is tied for tenth in the high jump with a BSU school-record leap of five feet, 6.5 inches (1.69m). Richner hit the mark twice during the season (Jerry Gravel Classic, DIII New Englands).
Andrews, who is seeded 15th in the 400-meter dash, also competed in the same event at the indoor championships back in March. She eclipsed her own school outdoor mark in the 400 with a time of 55.76 earlier this week at the ECAC Division III Championships.
Poto is scheduled to compete in the 10,000 on Thursday evening at 4:35 PM (CDT), while Richner is slated to compete in the high jump on Friday afternoon at 2:30 PM.
For Murtagh, the preliminaries of the 110-meter high hurdles is slated for 4:15 PM on Friday with the finals on Saturday afternoon at 1:50 PM.
Andrews will run in the preliminaries of the 400 on Friday at 5:00 PM with the finals scheduled for Saturday at 2:20 PM.
Goehring will compete in the preliminaries of the 800 on Friday at 5:45 PM with the finals on Saturday afternoon at 2:50 PM.
For each women's individual event contested, including the heptathlon, the top 22 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each men's individual event contested, including the heptathlon, the top 20 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition.