NCAA Championships Heat Sheets

NCAA Championships Meet Schedule

TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University track & field programs will send four student-athletes to compete in six events at the 2021 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships hosted at North Carolina A&T State University's Irwin Belk Track Complex. 
 
The Lute women, ranked 11th in the nation heading into the NCAA Championships will be represented by sprinter Bailey Forsyth, jumper Lauren Wilson, and thrower Ava Nelson. The Lute men will be represented by thrower Seth Bridge.
 
Of the four Lutes, two are making return trips to the NCAA Championships with Wilson competing and earning All-American accolades in the high jump at both the 2018 and 2019 NCAAs while Nelson was an All-American in the javelin at the 2019 Championships.
 
Leading the way this season has been senior sprinter Bailey Forsyth. The NWC Champion in the 100-meters and 200-meters, the NWC Track Athlete of the Year, and the West Region Athlete of the Year, Forsyth makes her NCAA debut with the nation's top time in both the 100 and 200.
 
"I'm just so excited. Nationals is something I've been shooting for my whole career at PLU and to finally get it after having such a great season; I'm just stoked," said Forsyth.
 
"It's going to be a different climate. It's going to be humid and hot, but sprinters do better in warm weather."
 
Forsyth heads to Nationals undefeated this season in the 100-meters and undefeated in the 200-meters against Division III competition. Her school record time of 11.73 seconds in the 100 is two-hundredths of a second faster than second-seeded Favor Ezewuzie of Wheaton College (Ill.), the only other sprinter clocking sub 11.80 this year.
 
In the 200, Forsyth's school record effort of 23.86 is the only sub-24 time this spring, owning a 0.30-second edge on Ezewuzie who owns the second fastest 200 time in D3 this season.
 
For Wilson, the senior from Olympia, Washington hopes to end her career with a third career All-American honor. Wilson finished fourth at the NCAA Championships in 2018 as a first-year, helping the Lutes place 15th in the nation, the program's best finish since 1999. Wilson followed that performance up by placing sixth at the 2019 Championships. 
 
Wilson's road back to Nationals had a few twists and turns, including suffering a season-ending injury on the volleyball court in the fall of 2019. 
 
"Being my senior year and since COVID has been so crazy, I'm just very grateful to be able to go and to be able to go with a couple other teammates. I'm excited to end my career as a student-athlete in this way in North Carolina," said Wilson.
 
Wilson won the high jump in seven of the nine meets she competed in, including winning her second straight NWC title. She heads to the NCAA Championships with the 13th best jump in Ds this season, having cleared 5 feet 6 ½ inches at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational on May 1. 
 
Also returning with NCAA experience is Nelson who finished seventh at the NCAA Championships in 2019. The Mossyrock, Washington native won the javelin in three meets this spring, including hoisting a second consecutive NWC title. Nelson's best throw this spring came in the first meet of the year, uncorking a throw of 143' 3" at the PLU Opener. It's a mark that's held up all season as Nelson heads to the NCAAs with the nation's fifth best throw. 
 
"I'm feeling pretty good. I've had a couple great weeks of training coming off the conference win that I had. It wasn't the best meet but I pushed through against a strong field of throwers," said Nelson.
 
That field includes two other NWC competitors who will be at the NCAA Championships this week. 
 
"I felt like it was just really new to me (in 2019) because that was only my second year of throwing javelin. Coming back with that year of experience under my belt, not being as nervous and intimated by some of the good throwers in the field, I feel more confident and feel like I'm going to do a great job."
 
PLU's fourth national qualifier, Seth Bridge, has taken an interesting route to North Carolina. Bridge competed from 2018 to 2020 at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. That changed when in February of 2020, Concordia announced the school would close at the end of the semester. Bridge enrolled at PLU, one of several Concordia students to take advantage of PLU's generous outreach to students from the closing college. 
 
The Elma, Washington native has made the most of his time in Tacoma, winning the hammer throw at the NWC Championships while qualifying for Nationals in both the discus and shot put. Bridge owns the nation's 12th best throw in the discus (164' 9") and the 14th best mark in D3 in the shot put (54' 0").
 
 "It's really crazy, surprising, and I'm glad for the opportunity," said Bridge. "My goal is to throw far and feel good while doing it." 
 
Bridge, Forsyth, and Nelson kick off the NCAA Championships by competing on Thursday. Bridge competes in the discus at 11 a.m. (Eastern) before Forsyth competes in the 200 preliminary heats at 4:55 p.m. (Eastern). Nelson throws the javelin beginning at 5 p.m. (Eastern).
 
Friday sees Wilson jumping at 11:30 a.m. (Eastern) with Forsyth running the 100 preliminary heats at 3:30 p.m. (Eastern). The meet closes on Saturday with Bridge throwing the shot put at 2 p.m. (Eastern) with the 100-meter and 200-meter finals set for 1:30 p.m. (Eastern) and 2:40 p.m. (Eastern), respectively.