WALTHAM, Mass. –Brandeis University will send three competitors to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the second year in a row. The Judges will send two women and one man to La Crosse, Wisconsin, from Thursday, May 24 through Saturday, May 26.
Representing the women are juniors Emily Bryson (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) and Doyin Ogundiran (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East), while graduate student Irie Gourde (Portland, Ore./York Academy, Toronto) will compete for the men.
Bryson is competing at her eighth NCAA Championship in nine seasons at Brandeis. She is already a five-time All-American – three times in cross country and twice in indoor track and field. Bryson, the NCAA Division III champion in the 3,000-meter run during the indoor season and the anchor of the third-place distance medley relay, will be aiming for the title in the 5,000-meter run at the outdoor meet. She will be the 15th-seed in the event, having run 16:54.33 at the Raleigh Relays on March 30. Bryson will focus on winning a title at 5,000 meters, as she has chosen not to compete in the 1,500-meter run, in which she ran Division III's third-fastest time of the season. The 5,000-meter run is the final individual event of the meet and will be run at 3:00 PM Central/4:00 Eastern on Saturday afternoon.
Ogundiran will be running at her third NCAA Championship and second as an individual. She earned her first career All-America honor at this year's indoor championships as the third leg of the distance medley relay team that finished in third place. At last year's outdoor championship, she finished in 16th place. Ogundiran enters the 2018 championships as the 14th seed, having run a season-best time of 2:12.15 at the MIT Last Chance Meet on May 17. The preliminaries of the women's 800-meter run will take place at 5:15 PM Central/6:15 Eastern on Friday evening, with the finals at 2 Central/3 Eastern on Saturday.
Gourde is also making his third NCAA Championship appearance, having joined the team as a senior last year. He is competing in the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Gourde earned his first career All-America honor in the winter, when he finished in eighth place in the 200-meter dash. He became the school-record holder in both events on May 11 at the Open New England championships at Dartmouth College, where he won both events against top competitors from Division I, II and III. Gourde's time of 21.41 in the 200 is ranked 11th and his mark of 47.46 in the 400 is ranked fifth. He will run the 200 prelims on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM Central/5:00 Eastern and the 400 prelims at the same time on Friday. Finals are at 1:10 PM Central/2:10 PM Eastern on Saturday for the 400 and 2:40 Central/3:40 Eastern for the 200.
You can follow the action for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at http://www.uwlathletics.com/sports/2017/12/7/TRACK_0423131617.aspx. Video of the event will be streamed at https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule, with live results posted at http://www.deltatiming.com/results.aspx.