Complete List of NCAA Decathlon Qualifiers
RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The NCAA has released the list of qualifiers for the 2013 Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and Manhattan College senior Tom Bechert (Munich, Germany) has been selected in the decathlon. Bechert will compete on the first two days of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which take place from June 5-8 at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field.
Bechert won the IC4A championship last weekend, breaking the school record with a score of 7767 points. That total was the ninth-best mark in the NCAA and 12th-best performance in the world this season. The top 24 decathletes qualified for the NCAA Championships.
He becomes the third Manhattan athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the decathlon. Pontus Lundkvist, whose school-record Bechert broke, competed at the national meet in 1998 and 1999, while Rajne Svenssohn went in 2004.
Three other Jaspers have a chance to join Bechert in Eugene. Brian McGovern (Yonkers, N.Y.), Mohamed Koita (Cergy, France) and Lydia Wehrli (Anieres, Switzerland) all qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round, which will be held in Greensboro, N.C., from May 23-25.
McGovern was selected in the pole vault and Koita qualified in the high jump, while Wehrli became Manhattan's second female hammer thrower ever to make it to the NCAA Preliminary Round meet. The top 12 finishers in each event at the NCAA East Preliminary will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
