Track & Field | Mount Union has 17 athletes going to NCAA championships
Mount Union will send 17 track & field athletes to the NCAA Division III outdoor championships starting Thursday at Spire Institute in Geneva.
The Purple Raiders and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission are co-hosts for the championships.
Mount Union's men's team, ranked No. 15 in the nation, finished sixth at the 2021 outdoor nationals. The Purple Raiders won the outdoor titles in 2014 and 2018.
Mount Union's women's team, ranked No. 16 in the nation, was third in the 2012 outdoor nationals.
The top eight finishers in each event earn All-American honors. The top 20 male and top 22 female times/marks in each event along top 16 relay teams in the nation have qualified for the meet.
Among Mount Union's women's entries is junior Kenadee Wayt of Wheeling, W. Va., who qualified in two individual events and two relays. She is tied for the 11th-fastest time in the 100 meters (11.94 seconds) and 12th in the 200 (24.49).
Wayt is also on the Purple Raiders' 4x400 relay, along with senior Cortni Arp (Copley), sophomore Madison Miles (Parma) and freshman Mary Mason (Marlington). The relay has the fourth-fastest time (3:45.43) in the nation. That group set a school record in the event last week at the Mount Union Last Chance meet.
Wayt, Arp and Miles are on Mount Union's 4x100 relay (47.17), along with sophomore Lauren Roncone (North Canton), which is ranked 11th.
Roncone also qualified for the long jump with the ninth-best distance (19-2). She will be joined in the event by senior Kennady Gibbins (Navarre) who qualified in two other events. She is tied for sixth in the high jump (5-7), 10th in the long jump (19-1.50) and 15th in the heptathlon (4.467 points).
Miles will also be competing in the 400 with the ninth-best time (55.90).
Senior Brit McCauley (4:33.60) of Ontario, Ohio, and junior Megan Wertz (4:35.03) of Canton Canton qualified in the 1500, ranked 14th and 21st, respectively. Senior Michaelina Terranova (1:02.77) of North Jackson is ranked 18th in the 400 hurdles, and freshman Sidney Rambo (Columbiana) is 20th in the discus (143 feet, 3 inches).
Among the men's entries, the 4x400 relay of senior Tyler Gill (Greenville, Pa.), juniors Jared Storm (Barberton), Matthew McBride (Conneaut) and sophomore Justin Knoch (Canton) is ranked second with a time of 3:11.23. Dubuque (Iowa) has the fatest time of 3:10.85.
Mount Union will have three high jumpers competing. Seniors Tanner Slack (New Concord) is tied for fifth (6-9), while senior Evan Hershberger (Dalton) and sophomore Elijah Cobb (Mansfield) are tied for eighth (6-8.75).
McBride and Storm also also qualified in the 400. McBride is ranked 15th (47.65) and Storm is ranked 16th (47.69).
The championships will be streamed live at ncaa.com/liveschedule and real-time results will be at live.deltatiming.com/meets/15661.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Mount Union track & field to host NCAA outdoor championships
