Fredonia will have two representatives at the NCAA Division 3 Outdoor Track & Field championship in Geneva, Ohio.
Sophomore sprinter Brittany Feldman (Jamestown/Southwestern) and fifth-year senior distance runner Kyle Collins (Suffern/Suffern) have qualified for the national meet starting next Thursday through next Saturday, May 25-27, at The Spire Institute.
Feldman, making her fourth trip to nationals, is ranked No. 12 in the women's 400 meters. Her season-best time of 55.67 seconds came May 12 at Allegheny College's 12th Annual Gator Invitational. That's already two-tenths of one second faster than her 11th-place time at last spring's NCAA outdoor championships. Her best national placement came in the 400 at the 2016 indoor meet, where she finished seventh and earned All-America distinction. She also finished 11th in the 400 at the 2017 indoor meet in March.
Collins, making his second NCAA appearance, is No. 18 in the men's 5,000 meters. His best time this season -- 14:25.03 at the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic on April 14 -- kept him in the NCAA field of 20 men despite the challenges of several other runners entered in a multitude of last-chance meets held across the country the past two weeks. He also is No. 31 in the men's 10,000 meters, 11 spots from making the national field. His previous NCAA experience came at the 2015 NCAA Men's Cross Country championship meet.
Feldman will compete next Friday, May 26, during preliminaries scheduled to start at 2:45 p.m. The top eight women advance to finals at 1:10 p.m. Saturday, May 27. Collins and the other 19 qualifiers will toe the line together in the men's 5,000 final scheduled for 3:25 p.m. next Saturday, May 27.
NOTES: Feldman is the only SUNYAC woman in the field and the only one on the Top 50 list compiled by the Track & Field Results Reporting System ... In addition to Feldman and Collins, three other Fredonians made the TFRRS's Top 50 lists: junior Justyn Haines (Albion/Albion), 42nd in the women's pole vault; junior Anneliese Bienko (Clarence/Clarence), 44th in the women's discus; and junior Mikayla Capestrani (Jamestown/Jamestown), 50th in the women's pole vault ... Haines and Bienko competed Thursday at Ohio Wesleyan's 2017 Great Lakes Final Qualifying Meet but were unable to move up onto the national qualifying lists.
