Storylines• Augustana sends 10 athletes to the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Allendale, Mich. on May 22-24.
• The 10 NCAA Championship qualifiers leads all Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference teams and ties the most outdoor qualifiers for Augustana since 2010.
• Of the 10 Vikings headed to the Grand Valley State-hosted national meet, four have qualified before and three have earned All-American honors.
• At the NSIC Championships two weeks ago, Augustana's men placed second and the women finished third, breaking a slew of record as they won six individual titles.
• Overall, 14 different Vikings hit qualifying marks and totaled 21 qualifying marks this season while seven women and three men will be making competing at the NCAA Championships.
Meet the qualifiers• A combination of youth an experience represent Augustana's biggest group of qualifiers in 2014, combining for six outdoor All-American finishes.
• Headlining the women are
Kyle Blakeslee and
Kristin Brondbo who are each competing in two individual events.
• Blakeslee registered the only automatic qualifying mark for Augustana this season, and will be seeking her third All-American finish in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in the Thursday prelims.
• The Cannon Falls, Minn. senior placed fourth in the 2011 and 2012 NCAA Championships in the steeplechase and won her fourth NSIC steeplechase title two weeks ago.
• Blakeslee's automatic-qualifying 10:23.84 is the second-seeded time in the 21-athlete field and she holds the record in the steeplechase for both Augustana and the NSIC.
• As two of the most decorated runners in Augustana history, Blakeslee and Brondbo will run for the Vikings in the women's 5,000 meters on Saturday evening.
• Both seniors hit their qualifying times at the Howard Wood Relays and Brondbo comes in seeded 20th and Blakeslee 21st.
• Brondbo will also be seeking another All-American finish in the women's 1,500-meter run when she begins competition in the metric mile prelims on Thursday.
• Her NSIC meet-record breaking time of 4:30.69 has her seeded 11th in the 21-athlete field.
• The Steinkjer, Norway senior placed sixth at the 2011 NCAA Championships to earn her only outdoor All-American honors and she has eight total All-American finishes in her cross country and track and field career.
• The third Augustana women's distance runner is making her first NCAA Championship appearance as
Meritxell Delgado qualified for the women's 10,000-meter run.
• With her fifth-place finish at the Drake Relays, Delgado clocked a 35:38.55 to finish as the highest Division II runner and earn a spot in the 21-athlete field.
• A native of Barcelona, Spain, Delgado is seeded 13th for the Thursday-night finals.
•
Kayla Mescher qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time in her junior season after breaking a pair of Augustana records.
• Hailing from Brighton, Colo., Mescher defended her women's 400-meter hurdles NSIC Championship and qualified with an Augustana record 1:00.46.
• Seeded 18th in the 21-athlete field, Mescher begins her competition in the Thursday-night prelims.
• Mescher will be joined by three teammates who will be seeking Augustana's first All-American finish in a women's relay and first overall since 1995.
•
Colleen Everson (Slayton, Minn.),
Carina Hofmeister (Hamburg, Germany), and
Anne Parsley (Flandreau, S.D.) combined with Mescher to run a 3:45.19 which broke the Augustana record and earned them the No. 13 seed in the 15-team field which begins with prelims on Friday night.
• Parsley, Everson, and Mescher were joined by
Charissa Etrheim (Brandon, S.D.) to take second at the NSIC Championships and earn All-American honors.
• Headlining Augustana's men is
Aduo Omot who is seeking his fourth All-American finish in the men's 800-meter run.
• By winning the NSIC Championships, the Worthington, Minn. native clocked a 1:50.45 to earn the No. 10 seed in the 20-athlete field.
• Omot won the outdoor 800-meter national title in 2011 and has finished no worse than sixth in his three trips to the NCAA Championships.
•
Harald Karbo qualified for his second NCAA Championships in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase after recording a 9:06.47 at the Kansas Relays.
• Carrying on Augustana's strong Norwegian ties, Karbo hails from Stord, Norway and earned a spot in the 2013 NCAA steeplechase finals before taking 11th.
•
Henrik Hansson broke through to earn a spot in the men's 1,500-meter run field when he won the NSIC Championship race in 3:50.12.
• The Stromstad, Sweden native is making his first NCAA outdoor appearance but has earned two indoor All-American honors including a national championship as part of Augustana's distance medley relay teams in 2012 and 2014.
Week in review: Vikings win six titles on the way to top-three NSIC finishes• Augustana collected six individual titles while breaking a host of conference records at the NSIC Championships two weeks ago.
• Earning the first title,
Kelsey Kaufmann completed the season sweep by winning the women's outdoor high jump title to pair with her indoor championship.
• Augustan then swept the men's and women's 1,500-meter races with
Henrik Hansson breaking the men's conference record and
Kristin Brondbo taking the women's race.
•
Kyle Blakeslee finished her NSIC career undefeated in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase as she broke her own conference record and won by nearly 30 seconds.
•
Aduo Omot collected his third NSIC 800-meter title and broke the conference record to add the fifth championship.
•
Kayla Mescher then added the final individual title as she broke the Augustana record in the women's 400-meter hurdles and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
•
Carina Hofmeister narrowly missed an individual title in the women's 400-meter dash, but she still managed to break the school record, the fourth different record of her sophomore season.
The staff• In his 11th season as the head coach,
Tracy Hellman enters 2014 with hopes of another award-filled season.
• Hellman has directed 84 All-Americans in his combined duties of leading the track and field teams as well as the
successful cross country teams.
• With four individual national championships and a relay title in 2012, Hellman has also earned 19 coach of the year
honors, including the 2011 national women's cross country coach of the year after leading his squad to the first national championship in program history.
•Assistant coach
Greg Binstock enters his second season as the lead assistant.
• Directing sprinters and jumpers, Binstock helped
Henrik Holmberg to two All-American finishes in multi-events last season and directed 12 national qualifiers to nine All-American performances.
• Graduate Assistants Riley Northrup (jumps) and Dan Allen (distance) round out the coaching staff.
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