(LEBANON, Ill., March 2)—The McKendree University track and field program will have nine team members competing this weekend at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships. The men's and women's events will be held together at the GaReat Sports Complex in Geneva, Ohio.
The Bearcats will have six men and three women at the three-day meet, which begins on Thursday and runs through Saturday afternoon. On the men's side, sophomore Elkana Kipsang (Eldoret, Kenya/Legebet) (Eldoret, Kenya) will be the lone individual participant for McKendree. Kipsang has qualified for the 3,000-meter run and is scheduled to run Friday afternoon at 5:45 p.m. ET.
McKendree will also look to defend its NAIA title in the distance medley relay. The Bearcats have brought five runners to Ohio to compete on the relay squad: sophomore Blake DeLong (Hillsboro, IL/Hillsboro) (Hillsboro, Ill./Hillsboro), freshman Josh Wilhelm (Trenton, IL/Wesclin) (Trenton, Ill./Wesclin), junior Nick Thompson (Herrin, IL/Herrin) (Herrin, Ill./Herrin), freshman Ryan Todd (Jerseyville, IL/Jerseyville) (Jerseyville, Ill./Jersey Community) and junior Jordan Stark (Belleville, IL/Belleville West) (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West). The semifinals for the distance medley relay are slated to be held Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
For the Bearcat women's squad, two of the three entrants will compete in the triple jump. Sophomore Nadia Moore (Cahokia, IL/Cahokia) (Cahokia, Ill./Cahokia) was an NAIA All-American in last year's triple jump as she finished fifth in the event. Moore will be joined by freshman LaTia Jefferson (Belleville, IL/Belleville East) (Belleville, Ill./Belleville East) in the triple jump. Both Moore and Jefferson will compete on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET.
Rounding out the list of qualifiers for McKendree is sophomore Kim Spencer (Pinckneyville, Ill./Pinckneyville), who has qualified to race in the 60-meter dash. Spencer will first race in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash on Friday at 1:35 p.m. ET.
Updated results for the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships can be found on the NAIA website at http://www.naia.org.
