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The Division 3 Championships continued on Friday, highlighted by the 800 trials and steeplechase finals. Aside from scattered rainstorms on Thursday, the weather has held up marvelously, and with good weather has come some incredible times. Again, I encourage all of you to come out to Ohio Wesleyan for the final day tomorrow. However, if you can’t make it, you can check out the live feed here, or just check back in for tomorrow’s recap. Anyway, here’s what happened today:

Field Events
Though I have typically just recapped the track events, there was so much good stuff today that I feel the need to at least address the highlights. The women’s pole vault again proved exceptional, with Abigail Schaffer of Moravian and Catherine Street of Linfield both clearing 4.14 and setting a new meet record, with Schaffer getting the win on misses. Tanasia Hoffler added a second triple jump title after taking the lead on her fifth jump, and the Oshkosh throwers continued to dominate with a 1-2-4-6 finish in the hammer and a 1-2 finish in the shot. On the men’s side, in the most exciting shot put final I’ve ever seen, Eric Flores moved from third to first on the second-to-last throw of the competition, winning by only a centimeter over Andy Novak of La Crosse. Freshman Jonas Elusme of Wartburg won a very back-and-forth men’s high jump, while Peter Geraghty led three North Central vaulters into the top eight, scoring vital points in their attempt to repeat.

Women’s 100
This event went almost completely to form, with the top seven seeds all advancing. Top seeds Ashlynn Chavis and Ruby Blackwell, both of Methodist, tied for the fastest time on the day, as both won their respective heats in 11.78, the only two sub-12 second times on the day.

Women’s 100H
The shorter of the two hurdles races has dramatic implications for team placing, and both Wartburg and MIT, the second and third seeded squads, rose to the occasion. Both teams qualified two runners for Saturday’s finals, with MIT’s Portia Jones posting the fastest time on the day (14.13).

Women’s 400
Top seed Nevada Morrison of Wartburg took care of business by running 55.12, the day’s fastest time. After running down North Central’s Krista Cota in the 4x400 last night, she rolled past another Cardinal, Sheila Walsh, in the open 400 trials today. However, Walsh did post the second fastest time on the day and will have another chance to take down Morrison tomorrow. Elsa Millet of Bowdoin and Mary Mahoney of Mount Union were the other heat winners.

Women’s 800
The first heat went out fairly easily, with Middlebury’s Juliet Ryan-Davis setting the 65-second pace. She and Sandy Henin of Rhodes would continue to battle down the final stretch, though both were overtaken by a fast closing Liz Phillips of Wash U, who also qualified for the 1500 finals last night. Ryan-Davis held onto second to nab the final automatic qualifying spot, and after nervously waiting for the next two heats, Henin was also awarded a spot in the finals as a time-based qualifier. Carmen Graves of Roanoke, the second seed coming in, faded to fourth in the heat after trying to stick with the early leaders, and she did not advance.
The second heat was led through the quarter in 63 by indoor runner-up Ann Tank of Platteville, and she maintained that lead until the finish (2:10.88). Meryl Wimberley of TCNJ was second in the heat and the only other qualifier.
The third heat went out at a suicidal pace as top seed Keelie Finnel of Coe attempted to set the meet record of 2:06.87, which is fractions of a second slower than her seed time. She opened up a solid lead after a 60 second opening lap, but unfortunately she was unable to maintain the pace as she finished in 2:09.48, still the fastest time on the day. Emily Schudrowitz of St. Norbert and Kaitlyn Saldanha of Middlebury both advanced from the third heat as well after being pulled along behind Finnel.
All in all, seven of the top eight advanced to finals, and we should see a good race on Saturday, though Finnel remains the clear favorite.

Women’s Steeple
The two top seeds (Kim Chinn of Baldwin-Wallace and Kimber Mattox of Willamette) opened up a pretty big lead on the chase pack from the gun, with only Tonya Turner of Whitworth and one other runner for company. Four time national champ Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence went with them for about a lap or two, but she has been coming off an illness and had run the 10k last night, so she would ultimately fade to ninth. With a lap to go, the race came down to Mattox and Chinn and they battled down the backstretch in a very climactic finish. Chinn put some distance between her and Mattox with 200 to go, and she would hang on over the last two hurdles to claim the national title as well as the ninth fastest performance in D3 history (10:24.22), placing her right behind Mattox on that list. Fourteenth seeded Turner would gamely hang on to third in a twenty second seasonal best, while teammates Marisa Liberati and Alyssa Smith of Geneseo finished fourth and fifth.

Women’s Team Outlook
Oshkosh has the lead with 48 points already, and the Titans have guaranteed points from the 4x400 and from Camille Davis in both short sprints in addition to top seeds Christy Cazzola in the 1500 and Breanna Strupp in the discus. Thus, I think it’s safe to say that barring complete disaster, they will win the team title. Fourth-seeded Williams sits in second with 26 points, but aside from 10k champ Gossels in the 5k, they don’t look to be scoring any more points. Wartburg, MIT, and Methodist will be the teams to watch tomorrow. MIT could score close to 60 points when all is said and done, and Wartburg and Methodist are looking like they will end up close to 50. Wartburg will almost certainly attempt to hold off MIT as there are places for them to pick up points, but the same cannot be said for Methodist, which needs top placings from Chavis, Blackwell, and their 4x100 if they expect to challenge Wartburg or MIT.

Men’s 100
The top four seeds all advanced, and the fastest time on the day came from freshman Jonathon Padron of Occidental (10.64). Top seeded Kenneth Turner of McMurry barely made it through to finals, and he will have to come up big tomorrow to help his squad secure a podium finish.

Men’s 110H
Again the top four seeds all advanced, with fourth seed Ross Blanchard of Redlands running 14.32, the fastest time on the day. Top seed Kevin Janata of Nebraska Wesleyan and second seed Dan Davis of Wash U were the other two heat winners with times of 14.33 and 14.54, respectively.

Men’s 400
Second seed Dan Benton won his heat in 47.45, the fastest time on the day, while Gino Bisceglia of Cortland and Kevin Curbelo from Whittier were the other heat winners. Top seed Marcus Fortugno coasted to second in his heat and will certainly be in the mix come tomorrow. Overall, five of the top eight seeds advanced to finals.

Men’s 800
Tyler Newhook of Messiah took the first heat out in 54, at which point Sam Wagner of Vasser took over and led the field through until around 150 to go. Fourth seed Tom Hoffman of St. John’s then took over, and he would post the fastest time on the day in 1:50.69. Andrew Wells-Qu was the other automatic qualifier, and though they had to wait for the next two heats to know for sure, Newhook and Luke Vance of Wheaton received the two time qualifiers into finals. Third seed Jeremie Bogard of Whitewater finished just one tenth of a second behind Vance and unfortunately failed to make finals.
Jake Waterman of Wabash took the second heat out slightly slower, and he found himself shadowed closely by top seed Ben Scheetz of Amherst. In a race that was eerily similar to the indoor final, Waterman and Scheetz emerged from the final turn neck and neck. However, given that the top two advanced automatically, they simply cruised to the line, with Waterman getting the win this time around and both securing a trip to the final.
The third heat went out faster than the previous two, with David Litsheim of Stevens Point coming through in 53 and Nick Guarino of Fredonia right behind. Guarino said yesterday that he would attempt only to secure a second place finish in order to stay fresh for his two finals tomorrow, but he clearly couldn’t resist the call of victory as he moved past Litsheim in the final 200. Litsheim managed to hold onto second, though, and will be in action again tomorrow along with four of the event’s other top eight seeds.

Men’s Steeple
The men’s steeple promised to be a fast race with many contenders, and it did not disappoint. As the pace remained hot, the lead group finally started to break away until eventually it was only the top seven seeds in contention, minus Josh Guarino of Fredonia, who had taken a hard fall. With two laps to go, Brain Lang of Rochester, Alden Black of Wash U, Kevin McCarthy of Wabash, Kent Pecora of Dickinson, and Nick Kramer of Calvin were all separated only by inches, with Jack Davies of Middlebury a few paces behind. After getting jostled with around 600 to go, Pecora made his move to take the lead and would never relinquish it, winning in 8:51.85, the eighth fastest time in division history. Black would win the race for second and Kramer would finish third, with the top five all finishing in under nine minutes, making this the fastest steeplechase final since at least 2000 and probably in division history. 

Men’s Team Outlook
Top seeded McMurry has again underperformed this year relative to their seeds, though enough of their athletes managed to squeeze into finals tomorrow for them to almost assuredly improve upon last year's finish. They’ll need some big performances if they hope to get on the podium, and I can’t really see them challenging for the win. Currently they’re seeded to score around 35 points. The defending champions from North Central are your early leaders with 32 points already, and they hope to never relinquish that lead. They have 10k champ Mike Spain and today’s fastest 400 runner Dan Benton in action again tomorrow, along with their top ranked 4x400 squad. That should leave them with close to 60 points, which could be enough to take home the title.  However, look for La Crosse to make a push for the title as well, as they are seeded to score a ton of points tomorrow and already have 20 to show for their efforts, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them come away with the title, either.