NCAA Div. III Championships Qualifiers
The College of Wooster's Dylan Garretson and Will McMichael are off to the NCAA Div. III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, as announced by the NCAA Div. III Track & Field Committee on Friday evening. The Div. III Championships will be held May 25-27 at the Polisseni Track & Field Complex at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York.
Garretson, who became Wooster's first men's indoor track & field All-American at the 2023 NCAA Div. III Indoor Track & Field Championships, competes Friday at 10 a.m. The four-time national qualifier is seeded sixth in the event after upping his school record to 16 feet, 4.75 inches at Thursday's University of Mount Union Final Qualifier. The five-time North Coast Athletic Conference champion has 31 first-place finishes in the event during his collegiate career. With a top-eight finish, Garretson would become Wooster's third multi-time men's All-American, joining sprint standouts Reggie Ray and Manny Stone. Garretson has cleared at least 15 feet, 5 inches in every outdoor meet this season and he became the first men's Fighting Scot to win the same event at the NCAC outdoor meet three years in a row.
McMichael, making his Div. III Championships debut, is seeded 17th in the 400 meters with a time of 47.45. McMichael competes at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and should he advance to finals, at 2:10 p.m. on Saturday. The three-time NCAC 400 meters outdoor champion joined Garretson with his third title in the event this spring. He previously won the outdoor 400 meters at the 2019 and 2022 NCAC Championships. McMichael lowered his school record in the event to 47.45 at the Baldwin Wallace University Harrison Dillard Twilight meet. McMichael, who will be capping his collegiate career at the Div. III Championships, earned the NCAC Athlete of the Year award for men's sprints and hurdles following the 2023 outdoor conference meet. The two-time NCAC Athlete of the Year helped Wooster win the 4x400 relay with a school-record time of 3:17.43, in what marked the program's first outdoor conference relay title since 2000. McMichael is Wooster's nominee for the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 Award, which goes to the men's and women's national qualifier with the highest GPA.