posted May 20, 2013

Three Hope Athletes Qualify for NCAA Track Nationals

Submitted by Tom Renner on Mon, 2013-05-20 15:45

Hope College has qualified three athletes for the NCAA Division III track and field championships to be held Thursday thru Saturday (May 23-25) at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse.

All three Hope qualifiers will be making return trips to the national championships and each is the Hope record holder in their event.

  • Senior Sarah Venlet of Zeeland (Holland Christian HS) will be competing in the women's 400-meter hurdles for a fourth consecutive year. She is seeded 17th among the 22 qualifiers with a school-record time of 1:02.32. The top-seed is Heather Gearity of Montclair State, N.J. at :59.80. A year ago Venlet finished 11th at nationals. She was 14th as both a freshman and sophomore.
  • Senior Joel Rietsema of Rockford (Rockford) will be bidding for All-America honors in the men's 800-meter run for a second consecutive year. He is seeded seventh among the 22 qualifiers with a time of 1:51.20. The top-seed is Luke Vuance of Wheaton at 1:49.91. A year ago Rietsema achieved All-America honors by finishing fourth. He set the Hope record of 1:50.38 in 2012.
     
  • Junior Sheri McCormack of Holland (West Ottawa HS) will be making a return trip to national in the women's 1,500-meter run. She is seeded 13th among the 22 qualifiers with a school-record time of 4:32.14. The top-seed is Christy Cazzola of UW-Oshkosh at 4:18.22. A year ago McCormack finished 14th at nationals.