SPOKANE, Wash. - Four Whitworth athletes are headed to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships this week. The meet will take place May 25-27 at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. Kristi Dickey, Sarah Marken and Angela Florence will represent the women's team, while Derrick Dewindt will compete in the men's competition.
Dickey, a senior from Kennewick (Southridge), is making her first appearance at the track championships after competing three times at the NCAA cross country championships. She will run the 10,000 meters, an event in which she is seeded sixth with an entry time of 36:17.27. She is Whitworth's school record holder in the event. Marken, a senior from Casper, Wyoming (Kelly Walsh), is the only Pirate with previous NCAA championship experience. However, her experience as a freshman running on the Pirate 4x100 relay will have limited impact as she competes in the heptathlon on Thursday and Friday. Her score of 4,470, which she set at last week's Willamette Last Chance meet, is ranked 9th going into the championships. Florence, a junior from Yucaipa, Calif. (Yucaipa), will throw the javelin. She improved by more than 15 feet this season and enters the meet ranked 15th with a best throw of 138'-1". Dewindt, a senior from Anchorage, Alaska (CC of Spokane), will compete in the hammer throw. His best mark of 181'-3" is ranked 12th heading into the competition and is only 3'-6" off of the Whitworth school record, which was set in 1988. Whitworth has sent athletes to the NCAA Division III Championships every season since moving over from the NAIA in 1999 under head coach Toby Schwarz. Results will be available at the host school's website: http://www.ben.edu/athletics/ncaataf/index.asp. |
