KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The NAIA has announced its full list of qualifiers for the 2021 Outdoor Track & Field National Championships. Eastern Oregon University will send a total of 18 student-athletes to Foley, Ala. for this year's NAIA Outdoor Championships.
The Mountaineer women led the way with 10 women making the final cut for Outdoor Nationals, while the Mountaineer men had eight athletes qualify. On the women's side, eastern also qualified one relay in the 4x800.
The list of national qualifiers for the EOU women are as follows:
Makayla Akers (Javelin),
Karli Bedard (4x800),
Allie Best (Javelin),
Jasmine Devers (200 & 400-meter dash),
Katie Jo Gebhardt (4x800),
Michelle Herbes (800-meter run & 4x800),
Olivia Lane (Heptathlon & 4x800),
Maggie Ledbetter (Shot Put, Hammer, & Discus),
Calista Van Delden (4x800), and
Karianne Zollman (Javelin).
The list of national qualifiers for the EOU men are as follows:
Tyler Davis (Decathlon),
Lucas Hidalgo (Pole Vault),
Allexander Kosel (Long & Triple Jump),
Moses McAninch (Javelin),
Cody Milmine (100-meter dash),
Hunter Nichols (800-meter run),
Sam Roddewig (Decathlon), and
Travis Running (5,000-meter run).
The 2021 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place May 26-28 in Gulf Shores, Ala. at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.
Throws
The javelin will be well represented as four Mountaineers are set to compete in the event at Outdoor Nationals. Leading the way is Akers who ranks fourth for the women with a mark of 141-9. She is followed by best who sits ninth overall with a throw of 136-11. Zollman rounds out the trio for the women at 16th with a mark of 130-7. On the men's side, McAninch is ranked No. 5 in the NAIA with a throw of 197-6.
For Ledbetter, she will compete in three different throwing events for the Mountaineers in Alabama. In the discus, she ranks No. 10 with a mark of 147-8, followed by the 11th highest mark in the country in the shot put at 44-10 ¼. In the hammer throw, Ledbetter is 21st overall, with a mark of 161-7.
Sprints
Two familiar names will be back at the National Championships in Milmine and Devers for the sprinters. Devers leads the way having qualified in two events in the 200 and 400. Milmine will compete in the 100. For both athletes, their qualifying times were run last weekend at the CCC Outdoor Championships.
In the 200, Devers is currently ranked No. 8 in the country with a time of 24.18 seconds. In the full one-lap race of the 400, she holds down the No. 16 spot entering the national meet with a time of 56.95 seconds. In the 100, Milmine is ranked 14th in the event with a time of 10.53 seconds.
Distance
A trio of distance harriers will compete at this year's national meet in Herbes, Nichols, and Running. Like most of the athletes that qualified, these runners are no strangers to the national stage as all three competed at Indoor Nationals earlier this year.
Both Herbes and Nichols will run in the two-lap race of the 800. Nichols is ranked 13th going into the men's prelims with a time of 1:52.96. As for Herbes, she is ranked No. 15 in the women's race entering prelims with a time of 2:14.98. For Running, he will compete in what is the longest race on tap for the Mountaineers in the 5,000. He is ranked 16th overall with a time of 14:39.10.
Jumps/Vault
Just two athletes make up this category are Kosel and Hidalgo. For the duo, they are familiar with competing at the National Championships, having both qualified before. Kosel will compete in both the long jump and triple jump, while Hidalgo will compete in the pole vault. Kosel is also the only Mountaineer on the men's side that is competing in multiple events.
Kosel heads in the long jump ranked No. 16 in the NAIA with a leap of 23-8, which he hit back at the Idaho Invite in late April. In triple jump, he is 22nd overall with a mark of 47-4 ¼. In the pole vault, Hidalgo ranks No. 18 with a height clearance of 15-5, a mark he hit at last weekend's CCC Outdoor Championships.
Relays
The lone relay set to compete at Outdoor Nationals will be the women's 4x800. Qualifying for the national meet was the quartet of Herbes, Lane, Van Delden, and Gebhardt in a time of 9:22.79, which they ran back in late April at the Buc Scoring Invite.
Entered in for the national meet for the 4x800 will be Gebhardt, Bedard, Van Delde, and Herbes. With Lane competing in the heptathlon as well, she will be the alternate. The relay team is seeded ninth for the event.
Multi-Events
Davis, Roddewig, and Lane are the trio that make up the multi-events group for the Mountaineers that will compete in the decathlon and heptathlon.
For Lane, she is the lone representative for the Mountaineer women in the heptathlon. She will head into the national meet currently ranked No. 8 in the NAIA in the heptathlon with 4,419 points scored. She hit that mark earlier this season at the CCC Multi-Event Championships back on April 22.
On the men's side, Davis leads the way for EOU at the No. 4 spot in the NAIA for the decathlon. He holds down the No. 4 spot with a point total of 6,496, which he scored at CCC Multi-Event Championships to win the conference decathlon title.
Roddewig goes into Outdoor Nationals ranked No. 8 overall in the NAIA with a point total of 6,459. His ranking came after he scored his point total at the Canis Latrans Qualifier & Multi back on May 8. He is just 37 points back on Davis in the event.
