(LEBANON, Ill., May 25)—McKendree University will send seven representatives to the NAIA Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which are slated to begin on Thursday on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.
The Bearcats have five men and two women entered in events throughout the three-day event, which will conclude on Saturday. Four of the men's team members will make up the Bearcats' 4 x 800-meter relay squad. The quartet is made up of sophomores Blake DeLong (Hillsboro, IL/Hillsboro) (Hillsboro, Ill./Hillsboro), Elkana Kipsang (Eldoret, Kenya/Legebet) (Eldoret, Kenya) as well as freshmen Ryan Todd (Jerseyville, IL/Jerseyville) (Jerseyville, Ill./Jersey Community) and Josh Wilhelm (Trenton, IL/Wesclin) (Trenton, Ill./Wesclin). The 4 x 800-meter relay team is scheduled to run in a preliminary heat on Thursday.
The other men's representative for McKendree is junior Travis Lavin (Centralia, IL/Centralia) (Centralia, Ill./Centralia), who is slated to run in the marathon on Saturday morning.
On the women's side, junior Nadia Moore (Cahokia, IL/Cahokia) (Cahokia, Ill./Cahokia) is entered in the triple jump. Moore will be looking for her second straight NAIA All-America honor in the event. She finished third in last year's outdoor triple jump. Moore is slated to compete in the finals of the event late Friday afternoon.
Sophomore Kim Spencer (Pinckneyville, Ill./Pinckneyville) rounds out the list of McKendree qualifiers as she will compete in the 100-meter dash. Spencer will take part in a preliminary heat of the 100-meter dash Thursday afternoon.
Live scoring of the events for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships can be found on the NAIA website at www.naia.org.
