Track and Field: Two Qualify for NCAA Championship
May 29, 2007 04:54 PM | General
May 29, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University track and field coach Jeff Huntoon today announced that seniors Abbie Stechschulte and Jessica Czaikowski have qualified to compete at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship, on June 6-9, in Sacramento, Calif.
Stechschulte, qualifying to compete in the heptathlon, enters the Championship with the nation’s 12th best score. The Columbus Grove, Ohio, native automatically qualified back in April at the Texas Relays. She finished fourth at the meet with 5,609 points, the second best score in Mountaineer history and an Olympic Trials ‘B’ standard.
Stechschulte has had a stellar senior year thus far, taking third in the heptathlon with 5,525 points at the BIG EAST Championship and earning All-America honors for her sixth place finish in the pentathlon at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championship. She entered that meet with the 13th best score.
Czaikowski, a four-time national qualifier, will compete in the 110 meter hurdles. The Tottenham, Ontario, native enters the Championship with the nation’s 22nd best time of 13.36. Czaikowski finished second in the event at the conference championship with a time of 13.50.
Freshmen Keri Bland and Clara Grandt barely missed qualifying for the Championship. Bland, a Fairview, W.Va., native, fell one second short of competing in the 1,500 meter run, while Grandt, a West Union, W.Va., native, just missed the cut for the 5,000 meter run. Bland will next compete in the USA Track and Field Junior National Championship in June.
