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SMU at NCAA Division III Outdoor National Champ. Thurs.-Sat., May 26-28 THE RESULTS Men's Results / Click here Women's Results / Click here |
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Ashley Dingels  |
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Ellen Koranda |
It was excruciatingly long for Saint Mary's University teammate Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.).
Dingels punched her ticket to the NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships in impressive fashion two weeks ago, as the Cardinal senior won her second Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference heptathlon title — and posting the nation's second-best point total in the process. Dingels' 4,668 point total was not only a school and conference record, but it also automatically put Dingels into the national championships field.
The road to Waverly, Iowa, wasn't quite as smooth for Koranda, who waited until the very last meet — fittingly, the UW-La Crosse "Last Chance" Meet — to post her best 1,500 time of the season, a 4:40.04 effort that, at the time, provisionally qualified her for her second straight NCAA appearance.
Monday evening, Koranda officially shed the provisional tag and joined Dingels in the NCAA field.
"It's great to get both athletes in," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman, noting that Dingels will not only compete in the heptathlon but also in the high jump, where she posted a qualifying mark of 5-7 1/4. "Ashley has had a great season and is looking very strong heading into nationals. And Ellen seems to be hitting her peak at just the right time — she's finally 100 percent healthy and running very well."
Dingels, making her third NCAA heptathlon appearance — she broke her foot in the first event of the 2003 event, then came back and placed seventh in 2003, before missing last season with knee injury — will kick things off at noon on Thursday, toeing the line in the 100 hurdles. She will also compete in the high jump, shot put and 200 on Thursday, before closing out the seven-event competition with the long jump, javelin and 800 — and the individual high jump — on Friday. Koranda, who qualified for the 1,500 finals a year ago at the national meet, is among the 20-woman field for the 1,500 prelims on Friday.
"The fields (in the heptathlon, high jump and 1,500) are all very tough," said Nauman. "I think both Ellen and Ashley have a great shot at doing very well — but you never know until the competition begins. It should be an exciting couple of days."