Women's Track & Field Sending Five to Outdoor Nationals

MEDFORD, MA (May 19, 2023) - Head coach Kristen Morwick's Tufts track & field team will send an experienced crew of five women to the 2023 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships next week.

Graduate students Hannah Neilon and Kelsie Hao, seniors Jaidyn Appel and Lia Rotti and sophomore Sarah Firth have a combined 20 NCAA appearances between them leading into the 2023 outdoor meet May 25-27 at Polisseni Track and Field Complex in Rochester, New York (St. John Fisher University). It's a group that has set four school records this season. The five Jumbos will compete in a total of seven events, with Hao and Rotti in two each.

Neilon qualified in the 800 for the fifth time with a school-record 2:10.43 mark at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Championships on May 12. Narrowly missing a national berth in the 1500 as well, Neilon was an All-American in the 8 during the indoor season when she place fourth in the race.

Hao, using an extra year of eligibility as a grad student at Tufts, was a four-time qualifier as an undergrad at Williams College. She's in two events this year, making it in the pole vault with a 3.85m (12'7 ½") school-record and in the long jump with her 5.87m (19'3 ¼") mark. The pole vault height was set in the team's first New England meet of the season - Tufts' Snowflake Classic on April 1 - and the long jump performance came at the New England D3 Championships on May 4. Hao was a three-time All-American in the pole vault at Williams including a pair of fourth-place finishes (2022 outdoor, 2022 indoor).

Appel, the back-to-back NCAA Indoor champion in the high jump (2022 and 2023), had the nation's best mark in the event this season with her 1.77m (5'9 ¾") school record at the All-New England meet on May 12. A four-time All-American, she was second in the event outdoors in 2021 and sixth last year.

Rotti is a five-time All-American who made the 2023 outdoor field in the long and triple jumps. Both of her qualifying marks were set at the New England Division III Championships with a school-record 5.88m (19'3 ½") in the long jump and a 12.35m (40'6 ¼") distance in the triple. The 2022 indoor national champion in the TJ, she was fifth indoors in the event earlier this year, sixth outdoors in 2022 and fifth outdoors in 2021. Her third in the NCAA long jump this past March was her first time competing in the event at Nationals.

Firth will be making her fourth NCAA appearance after submitting a 3.75m (12'3 ½") qualifying mark from the New England D3 meet on May 4. She was an All-American at the NCAA Outdoor meet last year when she placed eighth.

Entering the meet, Appel is the top seed in the high jump. Rotti is third in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump. Neilon had the seventh-best 800 time in the country, while Hao ranks eighth in the long jump and ninth in the pole vault. Firth's pole vault mark was 19th nationally.

With all this firepower, the Jumbos will be looking to score among the top 10 teams. Seventh and eighth at the last two NCAA Indoor meets, their last top 10 showing at the outdoor meet was 2021 (sixth).

The action will start late Thursday afternoon (May 25) for the Jumbos with Rotti and Hao in the long jump preliminaries and final at 4:15 PM. Appel will then be in the high jump prelims and final at 6:00 PM Thursday. Friday will have Hao and Firth in the pole vault beginning at 6:00 PM, and then Neilon will run in the 800 heats at 6:45 PM. The triple jump gets started early on Saturday (10:00 AM) for Rotti, and the 800 final will be Saturday at 3:00 PM should Neilon advance.

See the full list of 2023 NCAA DIII Women's Outdoor Track & Field qualifiers HERE.