Five Bearcats Qualify for NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, Ore. -- Five Willamette University athletes have qualified for the 2016 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The NCAA Championships will be held at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, from Thursday, May 26 through Saturday, May 28.

Complete list of NCAA selections.

Willamette's national qualifiers are Olivia Mancl (Jr./So., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS), Taylor Ostrander (Sr., Kenai, AK/Kenai Central HS), Hannah Bressler (Sr., Oak Harbor, WA/Oak Harbor HS), Hannah Swanson (So., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) and Patrick Loftus (So., Santa Rosa, CA/Sonoma Academy). Mancl will compete in the women's 5,000-meter run. Ostrander and Bressler will participate in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Swanson will race in the women's 1,5000-meter run, and Loftus will compete in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Mancl also qualified in the women's 1,500-meter run, but will not participate in that event due to the NCAA Championships schedule, which has finals in both the 1,500 and the 5,000 on Saturday.

The top 22 athletes in each women's event and the top 20 athletes in each men's event were given the chance to participate. If athletes were unable to compete due to injury or chose not to compete in a particular event, additional athletes were added to complete the field in that event.

Mancl is ranked eighth in the nation in the 5,000-meter run on the NCAA Division III performance list. She earned her top time of 16:46.99 at the Willamette Invitational March 26. Mancl is 11th on the performance list in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:03.85 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival on April 1. Both of her qualifying times are personal records.

In the women's steeplechase, Ostrander is ranked 11th in NCAA Division III and Bressler is 19th. Ostrander's best time of the regular season was 10:47.17 at the OSU High Performance Meet on April 29. Bressler registered a time of 10:52.58 at the SFSU Distance Carnival.

Swanson is listed 26th on the NCAA performance list in the 1,500-meter run with a top time of 4:33.03. She attained the personal record time at the Portland Twilight on May 15, lowering her time of 4:33.08 at the OSU High Performance Meet.

Loftus qualified for the NCAA Championships in the men's steeplechase with a personal record time of 9:07.23 at the West Coast Invitational, hosted by Willamette on May 12. He is ranked 14th in the nation.

Ostrander will be competing in her fourth NCAA outdoor track and field championship in the steeplechase. She placed 22nd in 2013, 11th in 2014 and 13th in 2015. She also has competed in four NCAA cross country championship meets.

Mancl placed ninth in the 1,500-meter run at the 2015 NCAA Championships, while Bressler finished 21st in the steeplechase. This is the first trip to nationals for Swanson and Loftus.