Women's Accepted List (.pdf) | Men's Accepted List (.pdf)

SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State Rambelles are still the defending champs until a new team is crowned at the end of the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships in a little more than a week and a half. Those looking for familiar faces among the competitors this year won't have much luck, but it's not because the Belles aren't there – they're just different. Angelo State qualified four women – all first-year squad members – and 11 men for the championship meet at Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock, Calif., May 26-28, as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Tuesday.

All nine members of “The National Champion Nine” from a season ago either graduated or missed the cut on qualifying for this year's season finale, but it only took one season for three junior college transfers – Bree Bennett, Tiffany Wilcox and Kelsey Wilson – and a freshman – Kati Holly – to learn the ASU way and find themselves in the championship field.

“First of all, I'm extremely proud of them for getting themselves in a position to where they could qualify and get there,” Angelo State head coach James Reid said. “All throughout the year, everybody would ask me if we'd be able to repeat, and we knew on paper and mathematically it wasn't a realistic goal that we had a chance to repeat as National Champions. We had a chance to be Lone Star Conference Champions, and we did that, but we knew that with our national meet kids, our number would be a little smaller. These four ladies have a tremendous opportunity to be on the awards stand and I tell our kids at this point that it's all about bringing home the hardware – getting on the award stand and earning All-American honors.”

Bennett, a qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles, and Wilcox, a qualifier in the 100-meter dash, both sit near the middle of the field with their seed times after claiming Lone Star Conference titles in their respective events and helping the Belles claim their third-consecutive conference team title at Tarleton State a week and a half ago. They'll be joined by field competitors Wilson (pole vault) and Holly (high jump), who aren't completely new to national level competition in their first Division II season after jumping at the indoor championships in March during ASU's inaugural women's indoor season.

Angelo State's women dropped out of the USTFCCCA's top-25 weekly poll Tuesday, but the men's team remained strong at No. 9 in the nation – the same position the team occupied at the end of the 2010 championship meet. By comparison the Rams are grizzled veterans – even outside of Tyler Orlando's old-man beard – with seven of the 11 qualifiers making a return trip.

Andrew Allison (pole vault), Austin Slone (triple jump), Robbie Thayer (4x400-meter relay) and Trevor Rogers (long jump and triple jump) will make their first appearance on Division II's highest stage, but Isidro Garcia (400-meter dash, 4x400 relay), Wade Goode (discus), Brian Holik (400-meter hurdles, 4x400 relay), Terence Holland (4x400 relay), Jacob McDonald (pole vault, javelin), Orlando (pole vault, javelin) and Nick Smith (100- and 200-meter dash) all competed at the 2010 meet in Charlotte, N.C. All seven returnees are former All-Americans, including Wall's Holik, who has earned an All-America certificate at the end of each of the last three seasons.

“He got on to me at the Holland's Sports Banquet because he's been an All-American three years in a row and I said he's going to do it again and he said 'Don't jinx me',” Reid laughed before knocking on hypothetical wood. “One of the goals we've had all season individually is for him to jump up there on the awards stand. He's going in pretty low on the list, but I think of all the kids in the event he's got as good a chance as anybody to end up in the finals and to be an All-American. That's also our goal in the mile relay, to get up on the awards stand and earn All-American status.”

The Angelo State men closed the regular season as the runner-up at the Lone Star Conference Championship behind the top-ranked Abilene Christian Wildcats to mark the 34th time the Rams have finished among the LSC's top two schools. Reid was excited about qualifying so many student-athletes for the national meet, but had been holding out hope for a couple more.

“Obviously we want as many kids as we can to get in,” Reid said. “Really, of the one's that we've kept here this week preparing for nationals, there were only two kids that didn't get in that we thought had a chance to. That was Shane Holmes in the decathlon and Cathryn Rittenberry in the hurdles – they were both on the bubble and got bumped. Shane was the next one on the list to go and that's always tough, but hopefully it will create some motivation for him to work hard over the summer and get ready to make sure that he's not left at home next year.

The Rams and Belles will continue practicing at the LeGrand Sports Complex throughout the rest of the week before leaving for California early next week. The 2011 Outdoor Track and Field Championships will begin with the multi-event competition May 26, then field events May 27 followed by preliminary races, and will close with running of the finals on May 28.

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