Seven Wheaton track and field athletes ready for NCAA Championship

May 21, 2007

NORTON, MA- Seven Wheaton College men's and women's outdoor track and field athletes recently received word of their entrance into this weekend's three-day NCAA Division III Championship at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. Beginning on Thursday and concluding on Saturday, action will take place at Keller Field at Titan Stadium.

The women's team is comprised of senior Jennifer Harlow (East Bridgewater, MA/East Bridgewater), sophomores Lily Calderwood (Harvard, MA/Bromfield School), Chizoba Ezeigwe (Brockton, MA/Thayer Academy), Natana Jules (Brooklyn, NY/Boys and Girls) and Celeste Karpow (Wilton, CT/Wilton), and freshman Renee Thompson (Hartford, CT/Weaver). Freshman Howard Powell (Brooklyn, NY/Boys and Girls) will represent the men.

Harlow, who is the two-time defending indoor national high jump champion, will aim for the first outdoor title of her illustrious career. Wheaton's only automatic qualifier for the national meet, Harlow's jump of 5' 8" at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's Davis Invitational on April 14 is tied for highest in the nation. She picked up All-America laurels as a freshman and junior, tying for second each year.

Ezeigwe is the only Lyon scheduled to compete in multiple events, as she looks to record her first All-America performances in the 200-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay. A three-time indoor All-American, including earning such honors in the 400M dash and 4x400M relay last winter, Ezeigwe is listed fourth on the 200M performance list thanks to a time of 24.60 at the All New England Championship held two weekends ago at Dartmouth College. Wheaton's relay time of 3:52.32 also took place at Dartmouth and ranks 12th entering the meet.

Joining Ezeigwe on the relay team are Calderwood, Karpow and Thompson. Jules, who ran on Wheaton's other provisional qualifying relay team during April's prestigious Penn Relays with Calderwood, Ezeigwe and Thompson, will attend the meet as an alternate. That quartet's time at the University of Pennsylvania was 3:54.04, which was good enough to win its heat.

Powell's first appearance at a national meet is in the 110-meter hurdles event, as he met multiple provisional qualifications throughout the outdoor season, including posting a school-record 14.59 at the Division III New England Championship on May 5 at Springfield College. Powell enters the weekend with the nation's seventh-fastest time.

Ezeigwe gets things started for the Lyons on Thursday with the 200-meter trials at 6:25 p.m. She'll then return at 7:35 p.m. that night to compete in the 4x400-meter relay trials. Harlow's high jump is slated for a 3:00 p.m. start on Friday, while Powell will run the hurdles trials at 4:40 p.m. Saturday's finals commence with the men's hurdles at 1:45 p.m., the women's 200M dash at 3:45 p.m. and the women's 4x400M relay at 4:55 p.m.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 5/21/07.
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