INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA announced the official qualifiers for the 2022 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday evening. McMurry University will be well-represented as eight athletes made the cut.
The championships will be held May 26-28 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Geneva is located 45 miles east of Cleveland and 55 miles west of Erie, Pennsylvania.
Three of the eight athletes representing McMurry will be back on the national stage for the second year in a row. Junior
Jayden Sloan and sophomores
Dazhaun Walton and
Jamari Williams will get their second crack at national titles this season.
Senior
Kelby Tidwell will end her illustrious career with her first-ever national meet appearance, doing so in dramatic fashion. Tidwell set a new personal best in the women's pole vault Thursday at 3.71 meters, earning the final qualifying spot.
Four freshmen will get their first taste of outdoor national competition next week. Triple jumper
DonTre Sinegal qualified with a jump of 14.74 meters and becomes the only War Hawk this season to qualify for both indoor and outdoor national championships.
Sprinters
Jaheim Billison,
Jacorian Colbert and
Griffin Gayler will run on relay teams next week. Colbert will join Sloan, Walton and Williams on the 4x100 relay, while Billison and Gayler will run between Walton and Sloan in the 4x400.
The 4x100 relay team enters with the fourth-fastest time in the 16-team field at 40.52. Fellow American Southwest Conference teams East Texas Baptist and Hardin-Simmons also own top eight times and will join McMurry in the event.
The 4x400 relay will have something to prove next week with the 12th-fastest qualifying time at 3:13.28. The War Hawks also qualified for this event last season with Billison and Gayler replacing graduated legs
Jacob Williams and
Michael Limones.
Much like last season, Walton and Sloan will have busy meets. Coming off his ASC championship win in the 200 meter dash, Walton has qualified for the national 200 in back-to-back seasons. He owns the eighth-fastest qualifying time at 21.09.
Sloan will compete in four events total – the most among War Hawks. Outside of both relays, Sloan has qualified for the men's 400 meter dash and the men's 400 meter hurdles. Last year, Sloan had the fastest qualifying time nationwide in the 400 and enters with the sixth-best this season at 47.27.
For more information about the meet,
click here.
For a full event schedule,
click here. (PDF)
McMurry Competition Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Thursday at 12:30 p.m. - Women's Pole Vault - Kelby Tidwell
- Thursday at 5:25 p.m. - Men's 4x100 Relay Prelims
- Thursday at 6:25 p.m. - Men's 400 Hurdles Prelims - Jayden Sloan
- Thursday at 6:55 p.m. - Men's 200 Prelims - Dazhaun Walton
- Thursday at 8:15 p.m. - Men's 4x400 Relay Prelims
- Friday at 3:15 p.m. - Men's 400 Prelims - Jayden Sloan
- Saturday at 11:00 a.m. - Men's Triple Jump - DonTre Sinegal
If Qualified
- Saturday at 12:15 p.m. - Men's 4x100 Relay Final
- Saturday at 1:20 p.m. - Men's 400 Final - Jayden Sloan
- Saturday at 2:25 p.m. - Men's 400 Hurdles Final - Jayden Sloan
- Saturday at 2:50 p.m. - Men's 200 Final - Dazhaun Walton
- Saturday at 4:00 p.m. - Men's 4x400 Relay Final
