A pair of throwers will represent Ursinus College track and field teams at the NCAA outdoor championships next week.
Senior Evan Giannetti and sophomore Isabelle Deal are off to Greensboro, North Carolina for the national meet, which gets underway next Thursday. Both qualified in the javelin, each ranking among the top-16 in Division III in the event.
Deal and Giannetti are the Bears' first NCAA qualifiers in the javelin since John Wood and Sandy Wirth – the program's current record-holders – in the 1980s. The last Ursinus athletes to compete at the outdoor championships were Drew Mackin (800) and Krista Snyder (heptathlon), who qualified for the the national meet in 2017.
Both Bears captured Centennial Conference gold in the javelin. Giannetti accomplished the feat with a mark of 194-4, a massive PR that has him seeded 11th. Deal's top toss of 136-6 from the conference championship is good for the No. 16 seed.
The women's javelin championship gets underway Thursday at 5 p.m., while the men's is slated for Friday at 4:45 p.m.