Landmark Sending Nine Athletes To NCAA Track & Field Championships

MADISON, N.J. - Nine Landmark Student-Athletes have qualified to compete at the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, California from Thursday, May 24th through Saturday, May 26th.

Four of the six Landmark track & field teams have at least one competitor qualified for the event, with Moravian College sending six, and Goucher College, Juniata College and Susquehanna University all with one qualifier. Gary Zack, Timothy Lorah will compete in the javelin for Moravian, and Timothy Layng will take part in the pole vault and Nicco Dalpiaz has qualified for the decathlon for Moravian. Jared Minori of Susquehanna and Jack Iouse of Juniata will also be competing in the javelin. On the women's side Moravian's Micah Leonard will compete in the triple jump, while Abigail Schaffer has qualified for the pole vault. Goucher's Destiny Phillips qualified to take part in the long jump competition.

Zack is making his fourth trip to the national championships to compete in the javelin throw in his senior year, and he is the defending national champion in the event. Zack, who also reached the finals as a freshman, qualified first with a school record toss of 69.05 meters (226 feet, six inches), which is the eighth best throw in NCAA Division III history, while sophomore Lorah is making his first trip to the national meet in the javelin with a toss of 61.42 meters (201 feet, six inches), which is 14th in the field of 20 competitors. The duo will compete on Saturday at 3:40 p.m. EDT.

Minori is making his first trip to the NCAA Championships in his freshman season after qualifying in 9th-place in the javelin. His best throw of 62.24-meters came at the Landmark Championships where he won the competition by more than three meters. He is one of only 13 competitors to top 62 meters in the javelin this season.

Iouse is also making a first trip to the NCAA meet in his senior season as he qualified in the javelin with a mark of 60.82 meters. That distance ranks him 18th in the field and he produced it at the Dr. Jack Toms Open March 18 in Lynchburg.

The senior Layng is looking to be an All-America for the second time this season after placing seventh in the pole vault at the 2012 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. Layng enters the meet tied for eighth in the nation at a school record height of 5.00 meters (16 feet, 4 ¾ inches). Layng is scheduled to compete on Saturday at 6:55 p.m. EDT.

Dalpiaz is heading to the national meet for the first time in his senior year to compete in the decathlon for just the third time in his career. Dalpiaz enters the competition 15th of the 20 competitors with a total of 6,317 points, and the two-day event will start at 5:00 p.m. EDT on both Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, Dalpiaz will compete in the 100-meter dash (best time of 11.28 seconds), the long jump (6.81 meters – 22 feet, 4 ¼ inches), the shot put (9.71 meters – 31 feet, 10 ¼) inches), the high jump (1.80 meters – five feet, 10 ¾ inches) and the 400-meter dash (51.94 seconds). On Friday, Dalpiaz is scheduled to compete in the 110-meter high hurdles (15.18 seconds), the discus (29.37 meters (96 feet, four inches), the pole vault (4.85 meters – 15 feet, 11 inches), the javelin (41.93 meters – 137 feet, seven inches) and the 1,500-meter run (4:46.65).

Schaffer will compete in the women's pole vault at the National Championships for the second time this season and the sixth time in her four-year career after participating in the NCAA indoor meet back in March where she was the runner-up. Schaffer, a five-time All-American in the pole vault, twice at Widener University as a sophomore and three times at Moravian with a pair of national championships at meet record heights in 2011 and her runner-up finish during the 2012 indoor season, has the top qualifying height at 4.22 meters (13 feet, ten inches), which is also the best height in NCAA Division III history. Schaffer is scheduled to compete on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT

In her junior year Leonard is making her fifth appearance at the NCAA Championships and first this year after battling an injury for most of the season. Leonard will be competing in the triple jump after qualifying 14th of 20 at a school record distance of 11.87 meters (38 feet, 11 ½ inches). The triple jump is scheduled for Saturday at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Phillips has enjoyed a stellar freshman season for Goucher which she caps with her qualification for the NCAA meet. She is the first Goucher athlete to qualify for the NCAA meet since Natalie Williams did so in 2004. She enters the meet ranked 12th in the long jump with a mark of 5.78-meters which she established at the Swarthmore College Last Chance meet on March 14.

All nine competitors will be looking to earn All-America honors at the meet while trying to earn points for their teams. A top eight finish in an individual event earns the competitor All-America recognition.

This marks the second-consecutive year in which nine Landmark student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Three of those nine went on to earn All-America honors last year.

Story provided by Goucher, Juniata, Moravian and Susquehanna Sports Information