Twelve Landmark Track & Field Athletes Qualify For NCAA Championships

MADISON, N.J. – In what will be the final athletics competition of the 2008-09 academic year, 12 Landmark Conference student-athletes will be competing and representing their institutions at the 2009 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Champions at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio May 21-23.

Moravian College, which won the Landmark Outdoor Men’s and Women’s Championships is sending eight qualifiers to the meet, five women and three men. Juniata College has a pair of men’s competitors and one women’s performer making the trip to Marietta, while Susquehanna University has one male competitor. All 12 athletes will be trying to earn All-America recognition by placing in the top-eight in an individual event, while also trying to earn points for the team standings.

For Moravian three of its athletes are back at the NCAA meet after qualifying at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Anna Heim, Jessica Posimo and Symonne Scott all competed at the Indoor Championships and they will be joined by Rachel Beck and Sydni Wisniewski. Juniata’s Kelsey Buffenmyer is the other Landmark woman competing at the meet. On the men’s side Moravian’s Eric Woodruff, Nathaniel Tussey and Gary Zack will all be in action at the meet. Juniata will have Kyle Mazur and Dustin Drake taking part in the meet, while Susquehanna’s Paul Thistle is the other male qualifier.

Heim will be competing in the pole vault in which she is a defending All-America after placing in a tie for third at the NCAA Championships last season. She enters the meet ranked second in the event with a qualifying mark of 4.02-meters which ranks as a school record.

Posimo and Scott will both be taking part in the long jump competition, as well as the 4x100-meter relay. This is the third time Scott has reached the NCAA meet in the long jump, while Posimo is also returning to the NCAA field but is competing in the long jump for the first time. Posimo is ranked seventh in the event with a best leap of 5.81-meters, while Scott has a best jump of 5.73 meters to qualify in 11th position. The duo will be joined by Beck and Wisniewski for the 4x100-relay where the quartet is ranked 11th with a qualifying time of 48.02.

Juniata’s Buffenmyer will join Posimo and Scott in the long jump and will also be competing in the high jump. She is seeded 16th in the long jump after pulling out a best jump of 5.69-meters at a qualifying meet in early May. Her best leap of 1.66-meters in the high jump is also good for a 16th-place ranking where she is tied with seven other competitors.

On the men’s side both Woodruff and Tussey will be competing in multiple events. Woodruff is ranked second in the 200-meter dash after running a time of 21.22 at the ECAC Championships this past weekend. His winning time of 10.59 at the Landmark Championships has him qualified in fifth place in the 100-meter dash.

Tussey has qualified in the top-10 in both hurdle events at the competition. He is ranked seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.49 and holds the ninth spot in the 400-meter hurdles with his best time of 52.96

Moravian freshman Zack will be one of three competitors competing in the javelin at the NCAA meet. He qualified for the final spot in the event with a throw of 60.63 meters and will be ranked 17th.

The Juniata duo of Mazur and Drake will both also be taking part in the javelin competition. Mazur, who earned All-America honors in the event in 2007, is seeded second with his best throw of 64.80-meters. Drake is ranked 16th in the field and will be participating in the NCAA Championships for the first time after posting a throw of 60.82-meters in a last-chance meet at Penn State.

Thistle is competing at the NCAA Track Championships for the first time, though he did qualify for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in the fall. The junior broke the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at a last-chance meet May 11 with a time of 9:05.71, which has him ranked fourth in the event.

Competition at the NCAA Championships will kick off at 12 p.m. on Thursday May 21 with competition in the decathlon. The first Landmark competitors will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday with the start of the men’s javelin competition.

The NCAA Championships will mark the final event of competition for the second season of the Landmark Conference. In 2008 the Landmark sent 10 student-athletes to the NCAA Championships.

Click here for more information on the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Story provided by Juniata, Moravian and Susquehanna Sports Information