Women's Track & Field | May 22, 2019
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Four members of the Western Michigan track and field team head down to the University of North Florida for the NCAA East Preliminary Championships, beginning on Thursday.
Sarah Anderson, Erin Dowd, Audrey Oswalt and Madison Meredith all qualified for a chance to make it to the NCAA Championships, June 5-8 at the University of Texas.
Anderson, a junior from Grand Rapids, Mich., is coming off of her second consecutive outdoor 800-meter run Mid-American Conference title. She also won the title at the 2019 Indoor MAC Championship. Her qualifying time of 2:06.96 came at the MAC Championships and she heads into the race ranked 38th out of the top 48 declared runners in the 800. This is the second straight outdoor season in which Anderson has qualified for the NCAA Regionals in the 800. Her outdoor personal-best time in the event is 2:05.95.
Dowd is also heading to the NCAA Regionals for the second time in her career. The junior from Brighton, Mich., will compete in the 400-meter hurdles. Dowd is the reigning MAC title holder in the event, successfully defending her title two weeks ago at the MAC Championships. She ranks 12th in the region with a seed time of 57.87 seconds that she at the Mt. SAC Relays back in April. Her seed time is also the second-fastest in program history. In her first trip to the NCAA Regionals she finished in 40th last May after running a time of 1:00.14.
Oswalt returns to the NCAA Regionals for the second time in her brief career with the Broncos. The senior started out at WMU as a junior college transfer for the women's basketball team before joining the track and field team. The Fulton, Mich., native burst onto the scene last season after taking second in the MAC in the javelin, earning Second Team All-MAC honors and qualifying for the NCAA Regionals for the first time. This season she has a seed distance of 148' 11" (45.40m), a personal-best mark she set at the Jack Shaw Classic back on April 5.
Meredith is the first Bronco to qualify for NCAA Regionals in the 100-meter dash since Joy Eloms in 2008 and the first since NCAA Track and Field switched to just an East/West Regional Preliminary Championship format. Meredith is coming off a MAC Championship performance that saw her take second in both the 100 and 200-meter dash, including a photo-finish in the 100. Meredith's seed time of 11.51 seconds came at the MAC Championship and would have been a new school record if not for an illegal wind rating of +2.7. It was the second time a wind rating robbed her of the school record, with Meredith running an 11.63 second race at the Jesse Owens Classic with a wind rating of +2.9.
Oswalt will be the first to see action on Thursday at 1 p.m. Dowd will race at 4:30 p.m. and if she finishes in the top 24, will advance to the quarterfinals on Friday at 7 p.m. Meredith races at 6:30 p.m. and can advance to the quarterfinals on Friday at 6 p.m. Anderson wraps up the action at 8:10 p.m., with the quarterfinals on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
