A Familiar Feel To The NCAA National Outdoor Meet
MOORHEAD, Minn. (5/19/14)—For the second straight season the Cobber quartet of Hillary Birchem, Olivia Johnson, Cherae Reeves and Hilary Thompson will compete in the Division III Women's Outdoor Track and Field Meet.
The four Concordia field athletes will participate in the national meet from May 22-24 in Delaware, Ohio on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan.
NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship Meet Website
Birchem and Thompson are making their third consecutive trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championship Meet while Johnson and Reeves are headed to their second straight outdoor national meet.
In addition to her second straight outdoor national meet, Reeves is headed to her fourth straight NCAA Championship Meet. She has qualified for the past two national indoor meets. Reeves will be looking for her fourth All-American honor in the shot put. She finished third in the event in the NCAA Indoor Meet in March. Reeves also finished third at last year's outdoor national meet.
Reeves heads into this year's NCAA Champsionship Meet seeded fifth in the shot put. She posted her NCAA qualifying mark of 47-10.50 at the Ron Masanz Invite held at MSU Moorhead on May 3. Her qualifying distance set a new school record and Reeves now owns the program record in the shot put for both indoor and outdoor competitions.
Thompson will be participating in her fourth national meet. In addition to her third straight NCAA National Outdoor Meet, she also qualified for the national indoor meet this season,. Thompson will be looking for her first All-American honor at Ohio Wesleyan.
Thompson qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Meet by breaking the school record in the triple jump at the MIAC Meet with a distance of 38-09.00. She is currently seeded 15th in the event and will need to crack the top 8 in order to earn All-American Honors.
Birchem has been a model of consistency in the discus for the past three seasons for the Cobbers. She is headed to her third straight NCAA Meet. She qualified for the national meet with a toss of 144-11.00 at the Cobber Twilight Meet on Apr. 22. She is seeded 18th in the discus and will be trying to collect her first All-American honor.
Johnson is the face of the future for the Concordia field crew. The sophomore qualified for the national meet in two different events. She will participate in the shot put as well as the javelin. Last year Johnson qualified for the NCAA National Outdoor Meet in the shot put. The two-sport athlete who also plays on the Cobber women's basketball team, won the MIAC javelin competition this year with a throw of 136-09.00. That has her in the No.21 spot in the nation headed into nationals. Johnson is also seeded 17th in the shot put.
Reeves and Johnson will lead off for the Concordia contingent at the NCAA National Meet. The pair will compete in the shot put on Friday, May 23 beginning at 5:15 p.m. Johnson's javelin experience will be on Saturday, May 24 beginning at noon. Birchem and Thompson will also compete in their events on Saturday. Both the discus and triple jump are slated to start at 3 p.m.