Track & Field sends nine athletes to compete in NCAA Division III Championships hosted by Marietta

By Steven Wright

| Championship Site |

ADA - The Ohio Northern track & field teams will be sending one female participant and eight male participants to compete in the 2009 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Marietta this Thursday through Saturday.

Senior Dani Noe is the lone female Polar Bear making the trip, while seniors Jimmy O'Brien and Justin Linzy, junior Joe Amstutz, sophomores Ryan Fleming, Evan Heyman, Shane Huntley and Andy Lammers and freshman Travis Althouse will all be competing for the men's team.

Noe is making her second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championship in the 400-meter hurdles. She has a qualifying time of 1:02.50 which is the ninth fastest qualifying time in the nation.

The women's 400-meter hurdles preliminaries are slated for Thursday at 5:20 pm with the finals on Saturday at 3:25 pm.

Headlining the field for the ONU men is three-time national champion and eight-time All-American Jimmy O'Brien, who will be competing in three different events.

O'Brien will begin things on Thursday by competing in the 1,500-meter prelims at 4:15 and later in the 4x400-meter relay prelims at 7:20 pm. His final trial will be on Friday at 4:40 pm in the 800-meter run.

O'Brien has the fourth fastest 1,500-meter time in the nation this year at 3:49.90.

He has won the indoor 800-meter national title twice, including earlier this year at Rose-Hulman (Ind.), and the outdoor 800-meter national title once. He also has the fastest qualifying time in the nation (1:48.68) heading into the meet.

His finals for the 1,500, 800 and relay will all take place on Saturday at 1:20 pm, 2:50 pm and 4:45 pm, respectively.

Joining O'Brien on the 4x400-meter relay team are all first-time championship participants in Amstutz, Heyman and Huntley. The relay has the 11th-fastest qualifying time this year at 3:14.80.

The men's 4x100-meter relay of Althouse, Fleming, Heyman and Linzy will also be competing in the meet, and they have the ninth-best time of the year at 41.33.

The prelims for the 4x100-meter relay are Thursday at 3:45 pm and the finals are Saturday at 1 pm.

Joining O'Brien and Heyman as multi-event participants is Fleming, who qualified 16th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.72. He will run in the prelims on Friday at 4:10 with the finals to be ran on Saturday at 2:30 pm.

Rounding out the field for Ohio Northern is Lammers who will be competing in the pole vault finals on Thursday at 6 pm. He enters the meet tied for the 13th-best height of the season with a mark of 15-9 3/4.

Continue to check with ONUSports.com to get updated results and photos from the meet throughout the weekend.