There were few automatic qualifying marks this early in the season but there is plenty of time and contest left. There was still plenty happening in the DII sports world. First, DII adopted the life in the balance proposal (more here) which will affect our sports of cross country and indoor track by shortening the seasons. Cross Country will have a one-week-later date for the first permissible contest and later reporting date (17 days before first contest).  For indoor track it will establish December 20-26 as a seven-day dead period during which no athletically related activities can be conducted in winter sports.

California PA alumni, Christopher Clark debuted in his first half marathon at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon finishing 16^th overall in the time of 1:04.38.  As usual, I encourage reader feedback. If there is anything I have missed below leave a comment with that information.  This is a just highlight of a few meets. The qualifying list for DII Nationals can be found here.

Next week, I might be taking a short break from this column. I am moving Tuesday up to Pennsylvania to take an internship and begin the following Monday. Depending on how quickly I can unpack, will depend on if I have time to write. I will surely return the next week with more DII News.

Leonard Hilton Memorial-Abilene Christian’s Wanda Hutson provisionally qualified in both the 60 meters and 200 meters with the time of 7.50 and 24.88. Her teammate, Andrew McDowell took second in the second heat of the finals for the 60 meter high hurdles with the time of 7.99 for an automatic qualifying mark.  Abilene’s Jessica Blair got the automatic qualifying mark in the pole vault with a vault of 3.85m and was second overall.  She also qualified in the triple jump with a provisional mark of 11.65m.

Minnesota Open- Concordia St.Paul's Domoninque Gilmer provisionally qualified in the 400m with a time of 48.86.  The always contender, Minnesota State -Mankato's Brittany Henderson provisionally qualifed in the 200 meters with a time of 25.20.

Super 8-St. Cloud State's Heather Miller hit two provisional qualifying marks including; triple jump (11.85m) and indoor pentathlon (3729).

Wichita State Invite- Emporia State had many provisional qualifiers. On the men’s side, Derwin Hall provisional qualified in the 60m with a time of 6.77.  Kevin Roulhac provisionally qualified in the weight throw with a throw of 17.84m. They had two qualifiers in the triple jump, Josh Honeycutt automatically qualifying with a 15.39m and Matt Koelling provisionally with a mark of 14.96m. They had two more qualifiers in the high jump. Briar Ploude had an automatic qualifying mark of 2.11m and Alex Pyle provisionally qualified with a 2.04m. Zach Rosenberger provisionally quailed in the pole vault with a 4.91m.

On the women’s side, Fort Hays State’s Kelsey Martin provisionally qualified with a time of 8.95 in the 60 m high hurdles. In the triple jump, Emporia State’s Brooke Kent automatically qualified with a jump of 12.11 m. Fort Hays State’s Darcie Schmitz  provisionally qualified with a jump of 11.58 meters.

UW Indoor Preview –Seattle Pacific’s Chad Meis provisionally qualified in the mile with a time of 4:1.39. Western Washington’s Ryan Brown provisionally qualified with a vault of 4.91m. On the women’s side, Western Oregon’s Annan Applebee automatically qualified in the 800m with a time of 2:11.40. Seattle Pacific’s DMR (Lisa Anderberg, Jane Larson, Jessica Pixler, Chrystal Sims) automatically qualified in 11:32.23. After a strong start they fell to third but Pixler fought back to win the race.