A total of 16 athletes from Augustana and the University of Sioux Falls will compete in the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships.

The official entries were released by the NCAA on Tuesday.

The ten entrants for the Vikings ties the record for the most in school history, and is the most of any Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference school this season.

Four Vikings will be returning to the NCAA Outdoor Championships and six will be making their first appearance. Leading the returnees, multiple All-Americans Kyle Blakeslee and Kristin Brondbo will both compete in two events. Blakeslee will be seeking her third All-America finish in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase and will be joined by Brondbo in the 5,000-meter run. Brondbo also earned a spot in the 1,500-meter field, an event she earned her first track All-American honors in 2011.

The men's returnees are headlined by former national champion Aduo Omot who qualified in the 800-meter run looking to recapture his winning ways of 2011. Harald Karbo earned a spot in the 3,000-meter steeplechase field after qualifying and making the finals in the same event last season.

Henrik Hansson broke the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meet record in the 1,500-meter run and earned a spot in his first

Kayla Mescher will also compete in two events after breaking two Augustana records. Mescher defended her NSIC title in the women's 400-meter hurdles while clocking a national-qualifying time and breaking the Viking record.

Mescher will be joined by Colleen Everson, Carina Hofmeister, and Anne Parsley in the 4x400-meter relay. The Augustana quartet shattered Augustana's previous record to earn a spot in the 14-team field.

The University of Sioux Falls will send six athletes to the national meet.

Each of the three entries for the USF women came in the pole vault as Brigitte Gross, Samantha Slaubaugh and Courtney Crandall will each be making the trip to compete in the Championships. Gross enters the meet with the 3rd best mark of the field (13-5.25/4.10m) while Slaubaugh (12-6/3.81m) and Crandall (12-5.5/3.80m) hold the 18th and 19th best marks respectively.

On the men’s side, two of the Cougars three qualifiers came in the pole vault as Scott Greenman and Jagger Gran will make their second straight appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Greenman enters the meet with the 5th highest vault this season (16-11.5/5.17m) while Gran’s clearance of the bar at 16-7.25 (5.06m) is the 12th best vault in Division II this season. Jordon Bents will also join the Pole Vaulters in Allendale as he qualified in the Shot Put with his toss of 55-4.25 (16.87m) which is the 17th best mark coming into the meet.

The 2014 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held May 22-24 in Allendale, Michigan.

 

Brigitte Gross, University of Sioux Falls Cougars track and field
University of Sioux Falls
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