Track & Field | 3/8/2012 4:03:00 PM

[Meet schedule] [Men's entries] [Women's entries]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Western Oregon University will be well represented at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend (Mar. 9-10) in Mankato, Minn., with three of its student-athletes set to compete. Ryan Hansen and Janelle Everetts will represent the Wolves in the 800m, while Ashley Potter will take part in the triple jump.

Everetts will be the first to compete at Nationals when she takes the track on Friday at 3:50 p.m. (PST) in the preliminary portion of the race. Hansen will follow right behind her with the men's prelims starting at 4:05 p.m. The women's triple jump will take place on Saturday (Mar. 10) starting at 2:30 p.m. The finals of the women's and men's 800m will be on Saturday at 3:00 and 3:10 p.m., respectively. 

Potter will be competing in the triple jump at the NCAA indoor championships for the first time in her career after competing in the outdoor championships each of the past two seasons. The senior from Springfield, Ore. (Thurston HS) earned her place at the National meet by leaping 39-7 (12.06m) at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships. She will enter the meet as the seventh seed. Her triple jump mark set the Western Oregon school record and was the second longest leap in the history of the GNAC.

Everetts will also coming into Nationals as the number seven seed. Everetts secured her place in the Division II championships by running a career-best time of 2:11.78 in the 800m at the Seattle Pacific Last Chance Meet on Saturday, Feb. 25. This will be the first appearance at Indoor Nationals for the senior from Salem, Ore. (McKay HS). Her NCAA provisional qualifying mark was also the second fastest mark in Western Oregon history and 10th best in GNAC history.

Hansen is the 10th seed in the 13-man field at Nationals. The sophomore from Dallas, Ore. earned his place into Nationals by running a time of 1:51.55 at the Seattle Pacific Last Chance Meet. That time was the second fastest time in the history of the GNAC and Western Oregon. Hansen's converted time of 1:51.65 was just .16 seconds off the eight-year old GNAC record set by Paul Mach of Seattle Pacific in 2004.  That time was the 11th quickest in Division II this season.  

Western Oregon head coach Mike Johnson on the weekend:
Opportunities for the student-athletes: "All three came in as bubble positions so a good finish here, a couple extra centimeters here and they can really break through. It works the other way too, so the further up the food chain you get the more critical each performance becomes."

Opportunities for the Western Oregon program: "That is the great part of the challenge and how we become better as a program. Those people go out compete and when they come back they bring a new level of intensity with them to help the whole team improve."

On the preparing for Nationals: "This will be Ashley's third trip to Nationals, but let's not forget Janelle has been to the National cross country championships. Ryan hasn't been to Nationals but athletically he is pretty sophisticated. We have gone back and looked at videos and pictures of previous indoor championships just to see the setup, the timing and how long they hold you between events. It's those things that all change at the National meet so experience helps reduce the anxiety."

On the Wolves' 800m runners: "All programs have signature events and I think the 800m represents how we structure our program. The 800m is right in the middle of what we do; the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, the steeple and both relays all come from that. Also our field athletes all can contribute in multiple events. That is the way we structure our program. Hopefully we put good 800m runners out there, but it is an element of everything around them." 

The Western Oregon track & field team will also be sending members of the squad to compete in the Mt. Hood Open on Mar. 10th.