INDIANAPOLIS -- Trine's Kara Eck has earned a bid to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in two events, the NCAA announced as part of its national entries release.
Eck (Auburn, Ind. / DeKalb) will be seeking the fifth All-America honor of her career. An All-American performance would give Eck the most All-America honors by any student-athlete in the 133-year history of the school. Eck will compete in the hammer throw and shot put at this year's national meet. The junior will be making her third consecutive appearance in the outdoor national meet. Last year, she won All-America honors with a fifth place in the hammer throw.
The NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships are being held Thursday-Saturday, May 25-27 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. For more information on the meet, visit THIS PAGE.
Eck enters the national meet with the second-best hammer throw in the nation this year. Her school-record toss of 57.62 meters (189 feet) came in the Indiana Little State Championships at Taylor University. She is seeded second in the event at the national meet.
Eck enters the shot put championship seeded 20th with her season-best throw of 13.79 meters (45 feet, 3 inches). Her performance in the Great Lakes Qualifying Meet locked up the bid to the national meet.
The top eight performers in each event at the national meet will earn All-America honors. Eck has earned four All-America honors in her career, tied for the most in any sport in school history. One of Eck's All-America performances came at an outdoor national meet.
The women's shot put championship will be held Friday, May 26 at 1:30 p.m. The hammer throw championship takes place Saturday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m.
Earlier this season, Eck was named the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association's Field MVP for her performance in MIAA Field Day, the conference's championship meet. Eck set a meet record to win the hammer throw, took gold in the shot put and added a seventh-place finish in the discus throw at the meet. It was the second time in her career she had been awarded MIAA Field MVP honors for her performance at Field Day.
In addition to her success during the outdoor season, Eck achieved national recognition in earning All-America honors in the weight throw by placing seventh at this year's indoor national meet. Eck was also named the MIAA Field MVP during the indoor season, giving her a sweep of the conference's yearly field awards.
Eck has been recognized with five MIAA weekly honors this year. She was named Field Athlete of the Week three times during the outdoor season and twice during the indoor campaign. Eck was a USTFCCCA Indoor All-Region honoree. The outdoor All-Region awards will be announced later this week.
For a complete list of NCAA accepted entries, visit THIS PAGE.
