CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
INDIANAPOLIS. – Three Lee University track & field athletes were selected by the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee as participants for the 2018 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships. A total of 540 participants, 270 men and 270 women, will compete in the championships.
Student-athletes qualified for the championships by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event. The complete list of qualifiers is available
here. Heat sheets will be available at this same website by Monday, March 5.
Representing Lee will be Emily Buwalda, Josiah Brooks and Justin Brooks. Buwalda is the first Lady Flames athlete to be selected to the NCAA DII Indoor Championships. Josiah is making his first trip, while Justin is making his second-straight trip.
Buwalda is one of 20 runners to be selected for the 800-meter run. The senior enters with the 16
th-highest qualifying time in the field.
Josiah is one of 16 selected for the men's triple jump. He has posted the 10
th-longest jump in the field.
Justin will be in a field of 18 in the 400-meter dash where he qualified with the 12
th-best mark. He finished fifth in the 400-meter at last year's championships. Myles Pringle, last year's champion, has posted the top time in the event so far this season.
The championships will be held March 9-10 in Pittsburg, Kansas at the Robert W. Plaster Center. Pittsburg State University and the Crawford County Convention & Visitors Bureau will serve as co-hosts of the championships. The championships will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
Justin will be the first to see action with the men's 400-meter preliminaries scheduled for 5 p.m. EST on Friday. Buwalda will be next with the women's 800-meter prelims at 6 p.m on Friday. The final for both events will be on Saturday at 7 p.m. and 7:35 p.m., respectively. Josiah will be the final Lee participant with the men's triple jump on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
LADY FLAMES AND FLAMES COMBINE FOR 51 USTFCCCA ALL-REGION HONORS
USTFCCCA RELEASE
NEW ORLEANS – On Monday, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced the All-Region honorees for the 2018 NCAA Division II indoor track & field season.
The top-5 individuals in each event from each region earned All-Region distinction, in addition to each of the members of the regions' top-three relay teams. The regions used for this award – Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast and West – match those used during the cross country season.
On the men's side, a total of 559 earned All-Region honors from 124 different institutions. American International paced the men's side with 26 All-Region honors. Tiffin and Grand Valley State had 25 apiece, while Southern Connecticut and Lee posted 24 each.
A total of 521 women from 120 different institutions picked up All-Region honors. Embry Riddle (Fla.) and Grand Valley State led all women's programs with a total of 30 All-Region honors each. Lee posted 27.
Leading the Flames were Josiah Brooks, Christian Noble and Harold Smith with five All-Region honors each. Justin Brooks added four more honors and Caleb Eagleson collected two more. Ben Tabor, Jared Herzog and Teagan Lenox earned one honor a piece.
The four members of the team's 4x400-meter relay team (Josiah Brooks, Smith, Justin Brooks and Lenox) earned All-Region in the event. The distance medley relay team (Noble, Smith, Justin Brooks and Herzog) were honored as well.
Josiah Brooks added All-Region honors in the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump and triple jump. Noble earned the honor in the 800-meter run, 1-mile run and 3000-meter run. Smith also met All-Region status in the 800-meter run and 1-mile run.
In addition to his relay honors, Justin Brooks earned All-Region in the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash. Caleb Eagleson was honored in the 3000-meter and 5000-meter runs. Tabor joined Eagleson in garnering the honor in the 5000-meter run.
Emily Buwalda led the Lady Flames with five All-Region honors. Charlee Boxall and Jordan Allison had four honors, while Amy Carpenter added three honors. Camilla Sims, Audrey Smith and Becca Umbarger gathered two honors each. Mikayla Beeler, Hannah Buttolph, Logan Hernandez, Kendra Irvine and Lynna Taylor tallied one All-Region honor each.
The distance medley relay team of Buwalda, Boxall, Allison and Carpenter earned All-Region honors for each participant. Buwalda, Boxall, Allison and Beeler were also honored as part of Lee's 4x400-meter relay team.
Buwalda also earned All-Region in the 800-meter run, 1-mile run and 3000-meter run. Boxall added the 800-meter and 1-mile runs. Allison earned two more honors in the high jump and pentathlon.
Carpenter, Smith and Umbarger were each honored for their performances in the 3000-meter run and the 5000-meter run. Hernandez joined those three on the honoree list for the 5000-meter run.
Sims earned her accolades in the shot put and weight throw. Buttolph earned All-Region in the high jump, Irvine in the pole vault and Taylor in the pentathlon.
The men's team was ranked as high as No. 29 in this year's nationally computer-generated poll. The women's highest ranking was No. 38. The Men finished the year ranked No. 1 in the South Region, while the women were ranked No. 2. Both rankings were the highest in school history. The squads combined for 14 provisional marks, up from 11 last year.
