Sunday, May 22, 2011

EIGHT MORAVIAN STUDENT-ATHLETES TO COMPETE AT 2011 NCAA DIVISION III
OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

DELAWARE, OH --- Moravian College has qualified eight student-athletes, six males and two females, to compete at the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from Thursday, May 26th through Saturday, May 28th. View the championship website at http://bishops.owu.edu/ncaatf/index.html.

Sophomore Eric Woodruff (Brodheadsville, PA/St. Pius X HS) is making his fourth trip to the national championships, third outdoors, and will be competing in a pair of events for the Greyhounds as he tries to defend his national title in the 200-meter dash for a second straight year.  Woodruff will run in the preliminaries of the 200-meter dash on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. after qualifying with the fastest time in the nation and a Moravian record of 20.97 seconds.  The finals are scheduled for Saturday at 4:05 p.m.  Woodruff will run in the 100-meter dash trials on Friday at 7:30 p.m. after qualifying tied for first with a school record time of 10.48 seconds.  The finals for the 100-meter dash are Saturday at 3:00 p.m.  Woodruff earned All-America honors in both events last spring for the second straight year, and he is a five-time All-American with two national titles in the 200-meter dash.

Woodruff will also compete in the 4x100-meter relay with juniors Kyle D’Angelo (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern HS) and Nicco Dalpiaz (Sunbury, PA/Shikellamy HS) and sophomore Justin Taylor (Randolph, NJ/Randolph HS).  The quartet has the 14th fastest qualifying time of 41.61, and will run in the preliminary heats on Thursday at 6:15 p.m.  The finals are scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 p.m.  Due to an injury to Dalpiaz, freshman Kristopher Joint (Bethlehem, PA/Parkland HS) may run in his place for the Greyhounds.

Junior Gary Zack (Canton, PA/Canton HS) is also making his third trip to the national championships to compete in the javelin throw.  Zack, who reached the finals as a freshman, qualified second with a toss of 66.92 meters (219 feet, seven inches) while sophomore Tyler Potterton (Closter, NJ/NVRHS Demarest HS) is making his first trip to the national meet the javelin with a toss of 60.14 meters (197 feet, seven inches), which is 19th in the field of 19 competitors.  The duo will compete on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Junior Abigail Schaffer (Easton, PA/Easton HS) will compete in the women’s pole vault at the National Championships for the second time this season and the fourth time in her career after participating in the NCAA indoor meet back in March where she won the national championship with an NCAA record vault of 4.17 meters (13 feet, 8 ¼ inches).  Schaffer, a three-time All-American in the pole vault, twice at Widener University as a sophomore and her indoor national championship earlier this spring at Moravian, has the second qualifying height at 4.06 meters (13 feet, 3 ¾ inches).  She is scheduled to

Sophomore Micah Leonard (York, PA/William Penn HS) is making her second appearance at the NCAA Championships this year after earning All-America honors in the long jump and triple jump indoors.  Leonard will be competing in the triple jump outdoors after qualifying 14th at 11.80 meters (38 feet, 8 ¾ inches).  The triple jump is scheduled for Friday at 5:20 p.m.