Hopson competes Thursday for NCAA hammer title
Sports Information Department – 112 Dods Hall
Phone (716) 673-3100 / Fax (716) 673-3136
CONTACT: Jerry Reilly,
Sports Information Director
DATE: Tues., May 19, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Track & Field
(NCAA D-III OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD MEET WEBSITE)
MARIETTA, Ohio -- Marietta College is the site of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship meet, the final collegiate competition in the stellar throwing career of Fredonia State's Julia Hopson (Poughkeepsie/Arlington).
Hopson will attempt to win her second national title when she competes Thursday in the women's hammerthrow. The event is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
Competing for the first time as a college graduate (the Fredonia State commencement was last Saturday), Hopson is seeded third in the event based on throws this spring. Her best this season of 55.10 meters (180' 9") came as she was winning the SUNYAC championship May 1 at Oneonta.
The top two seeds in the event are senior Taylor Hacker of Pacific Lutheran (56.29 meters) and junior Vantiel Elizabeth Duncan of Bates College (55.15 meters). Hopson defeated Duncan at the ECAC championship meet May 15 at Springfield College.
Hacker and Duncan will compete in the first flight Thursday, while Hopson will throw in the second flight.
Last year's hammer throw champ, Terri Schwamb of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, has graduated but four Oshkosh throwers are entered in this year's championship. Nineteen women are entered overall.
Hopson won the NCAA Division III women's 20-pound weight throw championship during the past indoor season.
One other Blue Devil woman, junior Jackie Majka (Depew), fell one centimeter short of making the women's high jump field. Twenty women with jumps of 1.66 meters or better plus four women with jumps of 1.65 meters will compete at Marietta. Those final four have also qualified in other events while Majka, whose best jump was also 1.65 meters (5' 5"), was a potential entrant in the high jump only.