BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's and women's indoor track & field teams will have 16 competitors at the 2017 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Indoor Championships being hosted by Ithaca College on March 3-4.
Head Coach Jesse Baumann has eight women and eight men heading to the meet with one final chance to reach next week's NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships in Illinois.
The Greyhounds have five competitors in the field events on Friday with junior Melissa Cheong set to be the first to compete with the long jump starting at 3:00 p.m. Cheong has a qualifying mark of 5.19 meters (17-0.5). Also taking part in events on Friday will be sophomore Beth Ann Davies in the pole vault with a qualifying height of 3.32 meters (10-10.75), seniors Kahron Walker and Kyle Hagerty in the long jump with qualifying distances of 6.82 meters (22-4.5) for Walker and 6.77 meters (22-2.5) for Hagerty and senior Greg Cahill in the shot put with a qualifying toss of 14.45 meters (47-5).
Moravian is also set to have six individuals and a relay team compete on the track on Friday. Sophomore Amari Schooler will start the races in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles at 4:00 p.m. with a qualifying time of 9.40. Sophomore John Spirk will also run in the 60-meter hurdles after a qualifying time of 8.42 seconds, and the men have three entrants in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash with Billy DiLolle qualifying in 7.02 seconds, junior Eric Morton with a time of 7.06 seconds and senior Austin Gardener in 7.10 seconds. That trio will be joined by senior Cory Taggert to run in the 4x200-meter relay after a qualifying time of 1:33.48. Moravian's final runner on the track will be senior Meg Brockett, who enters the 5,000-meter run with the fourth fastest qualifying time of 17:20.20.
On Saturday, senior Jackie Finnegan gets things started for the Greyhounds in the 20-pound weight throw at 10:00 a.m. after qualifying with a toss of 15.13 meters (48-11.75). Sophomore Scott Goodwin is entered in the pole vault at a height of 4.67 meters (15-3.75) while Cahill will compete in the 35-pound weight throw with a qualifying mark of 15.49 meters (50-10). Cheong and junior Casie Cronk are both entered in the high jump with Cheong tied for sixth with a qualifying height of 1.65 meters (5-5) and Cronk hitting a qualifying mark of 1.57 meters (5-1.75).
Taggert leads off on the track on Saturday in the 500-meter run at 12:40 p.m. with a qualifying time of 1:07.51. Freshman Carly Danoski is entered in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:20.01 while freshman Katie Mayer will race in the 1,000-meter run after a qualifying time of 3:12.13.
The Greyhounds will be aiming to get into the top 15 for men and top 17 for women on the Track & Field Results Reporting System list by Saturday night with that set as the cutoff to set the field for the NCAA Championships. Currently, Brockett is 15th in the 5,000-meter run while Cheong is 25th in the high jump. Goodwin is the highest for the men ranked at 37th in the pole vault.
