Division III NCAA Track & Field Championships

Thursday, May 23-Saturday, May 25

Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium | Myrtle Beach, S.C. 

•    Senior Eric Bottern was selected to compete in the shot put for the second year in a row, while classmate Anthony Rodriguez earned a spot in the 10,000-meter run as Babson had two men qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships in the same season for the first time in program history. 
•    Bottern’s top throw of 56-feet, 4.5-inches ranks eighth in Division III this spring, while Rodriguez time of 29:43.61 has him seeded 16th among national qualifiers. 

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

•    Rodriguez will get the weekend started when he competes in the 10,000 meters on Thursday at 9:15 p.m.

•    Bottern will take center stage on Friday when the shot put gets underway at 1:30 p.m. 

THE PATH TO THE BEACH

•    Bottern, who set the school record in the shot put (56-feet, 8.75-inches) last season, recorded five first-place finishes and a pair of runner-up results in eight meets against Division III competition this spring. 

•    He registered his best throw of the season (56-feet, 4.5-inches) on the way to claiming first place at the NEWMAC Championships on April 27 and followed it up by coming in first for the second year in a row at the New England Division III Championship on May 3. 

•    Rodriguez, who posted three top-three finishes in the 5000 meters this spring, shattered his own school record with a time of 29:43.61 in the 10,000 at MIT’s Sean Collier Invitational Distance Night on April 20 and then claimed his second consecutive NEWMAC title with a time of 31:29.25 a week later. 

DECORATED SENIORS

•    Bottern and Rodriguez have already cemented themselves as two of the most decorated athletes in program history entering this weekend’s national meet. 

•    Rodriguez was selected as the NEWMAC Track Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season after repeating in the 10,000 meters and claiming his third title in four years in addition to coming in second in the 5000 meters. 

•    Bottern earned NEWMAC Field Co-Athlete of the Year accolades after winning the shot put, taking second in the discus and third in the hammer throw. 

BABSON IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

•    Katherine Jacobs ’22 joined John Decker ’18 as the only All-Americans in program history by playing eighth in the 100-meter hurdles at nationals last May. She also placed 18th in the 100-meter hurdle prelims in 2021.

•    Decker twice qualified in the men’s 800-meter run and finished fourth in the 2017 finals and 11th in the 2018 prelims.

•    Dominic Esposito ’15, the Beavers’ first male qualifier, finished 15th in the decathlon in 2015, Marina Capalbo ’15 for the women’s 1500-meter run three times and Colin Cianciolo ’22 competed in the prelims of the men’s 400-meter run in 2022.

•    Bottern came in 12th in the prelims of last year’s shot put in Rochester, N.Y., while Rodriguez will make his debut at track & field nationals after qualifying for the Division III Cross Country Championships in both 2021 and 2022. 

BOTTERN, RODRIGUEZ HIGHLIGHT BEAVERS’ USTFCCCA ALL-REGION SELECTIONS

•    Bottern, Rodriguez and first-years Chris McDonough and Kainoa Ronquilio helped the Green and White collect a program-best four All-East Region accolades when the USTFCCCA announced the first of its postseason awards last week. 

•    Rodriguez (10,000m) and Bottern (shot put) both ranked first in their respective events, as did McDonough, who posted a school-record time of 10.54 in the 100-meter dash that was just 0.01 seconds behind the final qualifier for this week’s nationals. 

•    Ronquilio finished 13th in the region in the 400 meters and was part of the Beavers’ 4×100-meter relay squad that ranked fourth in the East region. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW

•    The top 10,000-meter time recorded at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium is 29:18.97 back on May 11, 2023. 

•    Nine of the 22 competitors in the shot put will qualify for the finals. The final qualifying mark to reach the finals last year was 52-feet, 3-inches.