Cleveland,OH--Senior Co-Captain Elise Johnson (Cleveland, OH)
will finish her Williams career in the same place that it started
as a youth athlete, at home in Cleveland. She is an automatic
qualifier in the 100m hurdles with a school record setting
performance of 14.19 seconds. She is a two-time returning
All-American in the event, was a 2010 Indoor NCAA runner-up in the
55m hurdles, and is ranked 6th going in to the competition. She
will contest the 100m dash for the first time at an NCAA
competition where she is ranked 20th (12.20 seconds), and run
leadoff leg for the 15th ranked 4 x 100m Relay (47.93 seconds).
First-year Tanasia Hoffler (New Haven, CT) is Williams’ top
seeded athlete. She will compete in the Long Jump, Triple Jump and
run legs on both the the 4 x 400m, ranked 5th (3:50.55), and 4 x
100m Relays. Hoffler is an automatic qualifier in both jumping
events, seeded 1st in the triple jump (12.16m) and 3rd in the long
jump (5.87m).
Hillary Higgs (Springfield, MA) has hit qualification marks in
the 200m, 400m, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay. She will compete in
the 400m where she is ranked 9th (56.11 seconds), run second
leg on the 4 x 100m relay, and anchor the 4 x 400m relay.
The remaining two legs of the 4 x 400 relay that features Hoffler
and Higgs will be run by Senior Co-Captain Nora Mitchell
(Pittsford, NY) and first-year Rebecca Fine (Weston, CT) .
Mitchell, Fine, and Higgs come off an indoor indoor season that saw
them garner All-American honors in the 4 x 400m relay with Johnson.
Higgs, Hoffler, and Johnson will team with sophomore Kelsey Ham
(Bozeman, MT) in the 4 x 100m relay. This is Ham's first NCAA
appearance.
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| Rebecca Fine (l.) and Hillary Higgs |
Another first-year and also making her first NCAA Track &
Field appearance, Jennifer Gossels (Sudbury, MA) will compete in
the 10,000m run. Gossels is ranked 13th in the event by virtue of
her time of 36:09.43 earned while competing at the Penn Relays
earlier this spring.
Julie Paschal (Painted Post, NY) is another first-year who will be
making the trip to NCAA’s. Paschal, who competed in the high
jump at the indoor championships, will return to the NCAA meet in
that event. Paschal is currently tied for 6th in the national
rankings.
Junior Lizzy Danhakl (Pacific Palisades, CA) rounds out the list
of Williams qualifiers. She will contest the 800m and has a
season's best of 2:12.79, ranking her 16th going into the meet. She
has been a finalist at the NCAA meet in both 2008 and 2009, the
latter effort earning her All-American accolades. Danhakl, Ham, and
Johnson will also serve as alternates for the 4 x 400m Relay.
Other Williams athletes that obtained provisional marks but were not selected for the field of competitors are senior Olga Kondratjeva (Vilnius, Lithuania) in the 800m (2:13.95), junior Sarah Tory (Toronto, ON, Canada) in the 3000m steeplechase (11:10.55), sophomore Karyn Moss (Medfield, MA) in the triple jump (11.53m), first-year Brooke Johnson (Torrington, CT) in the triple jump (11.49m), and first year Jasmine Adekoya (Missouri City, TX) in the discus (41.95m).
Head Coach Fletcher Brooks offered this statement about the team and its chances: "We are truly excited as a program to see a marked jump in the number of athletes qualified for the meet (17, total includes male team members) compared to last spring (11). Of particular note is the number of additional provisional NCAA performances (10) that did not gain entry but come from almost entirely non-senior student-athletes. The team-score implications of 17 athletes competing in 14 events could be significant if we are able to put together strong preliminary-round efforts to qualify to the finals / scoring round. Currently, the men are ranked 10th and women 7th by the USTFCCCA (coach's poll). Although much work has to be done to reach that type of finish on both sides, we certainly see it as a positive indication that we have the quality of student-athletes in the meet that can compete at the highest level and represent Williams and our alumni to the best of their abilities."
Check for updates and results throghout the next several days.
For the official Baldwin Wallace NCAA Championships website, click here.
