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Eight SVSU Track & Field Athletes Qualify for National Championship Meet

Eight SVSU Track & Field Athletes Qualify for National Championship Meet

INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships take place in Pittsburg, Kansas on March 8-9. Eight student-athletes from Saginaw Valley State University were listed among the 540 qualifiers announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Dominic Suliman and Ryan Brenner will represent the men's team in three events, and Alona Olshevska, Alexa Keiser, Trinity Greer, Cassandra Campbell, Sophia Thelen, and Cheyenne Nesbitt will represent the women in six events.

Suliman makes his debut at the National Meet in the men's 800 and mile run. He is seeded 10th in both events after setting a new SVSU record time in both (1:50.17 in the 800 and 4:02.38 in the mile).

Brenner will compete in the men's heptathlon after his best score of 5,243 seeded him 10th in the event. He will also be making his first appearance in the indoor National Meet.

Alona Olshevska makes her return to the NCAA Indoor National Championships this season for her third appearance (2022 & 2021). The four-time indoor All-American will compete in the women's 200m and 400m runs, both events she has earned All-America in during her career including the 2022 Indoor meet where she finished seventh in the 200 and fourth in the 400. Coming into the meet this year, Olshevska is ranked 17th in the 200m (24.04 seconds) and fifth in the 400m (54.00 seconds). Both of her qualifying times were SVSU school records.

Keiser is making her second consecutive indoor championship after earning All-America a year ago as a member of the women's DMR squad. This season, Keiser will compete in the women's mile run as an eight-seed with a school-record time of 4:45.80.

Campbell returns to the national meet as a member of the women's 4x400 relay team. She will be joined by Olshevska, Greer, and Thelen with an eighth-place ranking of 3:44.06 (Another program record). Greer and Thelen are making their debut at the NCAA DII Indoor National Championships this season. Campbell was part of the All-America DMR team last season.

The final qualifier for the Cardinals is four-time indoor National Champion and five-time All-American, Nesbitt. She is the top seed for both the women's high jump and pentathlon. Her nation-leading high jump mark of 1.83m is an SVSU school record, while her best score in the pentathlon of 4,475 was set during her championship appearance at the USATF Combined Championships and is an NCAA Division II record. Nesbitt enters the meet having won two of the last three indoor Pentathlon national championships (2022 & 2021). This is the first time in her career that she will compete in the indoor women's high jump event.

The 2024 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships will take place in Pittsburg, Kansas at the Robert W. Plaster Center. Pittsburg State University and Explore Crawford County will serve as co-hosts of the meet. The championship will stream live on www.ncaa.com and heat sheets will be available at https://results.leonetiming.com/?mid=7065 on Monday, March 4, 2024.