Complete List of 2022 NCAA Qualifers |
Men's Qualifiers |
Women's Qualifiers |
Live Stats |
NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championship: Men's |
Women's |
TV-18 National Preview
MENOMONIE (May 20, 2022) - UW-Stout had 12 members of the men's and women's track and field teams qualify to the 2022 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, May 26-28, at Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, near Cleveland.
Leading the way is
Kevin Ruechel (Sr, Pulaski), the defending national outdoor and indoor champion in the shot put. After winning the 2022 indoor shot put title, Ruechel is gunning for this third consecutive shot put national crown. Ruechel, who won the 2022 WIAC outdoor title in early May with a school-record and Division III leading toss of 60-feet, 0.25-inches, is the top seed in the event. Ruechel will also be competing in the discus where he is seeded third after a career-best toss of 178-7 at the Augustana Twilight Qualifier. In combination with the indoor championships, this will be Ruechel's sixth trip to an NCAA championship meet. He has earned All-America honors four times, all four-times in the shot put.
While Ruechel will be making his sixth national appearance, freshman
Kaden Martin (West Bend) will be making his first trip to the big stage. Martin is coming off a WIAC championship title in the 110-hurdles, where he set a school record with a time of 14.29-seconds. He is seeded eighth with the time.
Jacob Bugella (Sr, Rice Lake) will be making his third trip to the national stage and his second in the outdoor. The senior will be competing in the hammer throw, where he is currently seeded fifth nationally with a distance of 197-10. Bugella was the runner-up in the hammer last season.
Hannah Zastrow (So, Spencer) will be making her third trip to a national meet in her third chance. Zastrow last year came out of seemingly no-where to place fifth in the 100-hurdles at the 2021 national meet, breaking the school record in the process. Zastrow, who finished second at the 2022 national indoor championship in a photo-finish in the 60-hurdles, continued to lower the school record in the 100-hurdles, breaking it again at the UW-La Crosse NCAA Final Qualifer, Thursday, with a time of 14.01 seconds, where she is now seeded fifth nationally. Five of the top six 100-hurdlers are from schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northern Illinois.
Demi Ploor (Sr, Sturgeon Bay) has shown steady improvement throughout the 2022 indoor and outdoor seasons. She qualified to the indoor national championship in the weight throw. Ploor was second in the hammer at the 2022 WIAC Championship with a career best throw of 176-9, a mark where she is seeded ninth ntionally.
Mason Barth (Jr, Spencer), who won the 2022 WIAC indoor heptathlon and was seventh at the 2022 national indoor meet, finished second at the WIAC Championship in the decathlon with a career-high 6587 points, a mark that has him seeded eighth nationally. Barth's strongest events have been typically on the second day, which showed at the WIAC meet where he was ninth after the first day.
Jacob Backes (Jr, Osakis, Minn) will be making his second national appearance in the pole vault, and his first at the outdoor championship. Backes finished third at the 2022 WIAC Championship in the pole vault, but his mark of 16-0 at the Phil Esten Challenge in mid-April has him seeded 15th.
Mackenzie Huber (Jr, Colby) will look to extend her string of All-America medals. Huber was seventh last year in the shot put at the outdoor championship and collected two medals at the 2022 indoor national championship, taking home hardware in the shot put and the weight throw. Huber is seeded 19th in the shot put at 44-10.25.
Hannah Miller (Sr, Beloit) qualified in the triple jump. Miller popped off a career-best triple jump mark Thursday at La Crosse and her distance of 39-3.75 moved her to 15th.
Grant Magnuson (Fr, River Falls) is seeded 13th in the 800-meter after setting a school record in the event in a meet at North Central College last week, running a time of 1:50.70.
Spencer Schultz (Jr, Rosemount, Minn) is seeded 16th in the 10,000-meter with a time of 29:54.50.
Grace Maurer (Sr, Rogers, Minn) put herself in position to qualify for the national meet in the 400-meter after running a career-best time of 56.60-seconds at La Crosse Thursday.. Maurer is ranked 17th nationally.
The NCAA takes the top 22 women and the top 20 men in each event.
