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Ewing, NJ … After countless hours of training, events, and challenging opponents, The College of New Jersey Outdoor Track and Field program will culminate its season Thursday, May 27 through Saturday, May 29 at the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Berea, OH at Baldwin-Wallace College.

Ten track and field athletes from the women's team will begin competition on Thursday afternoon while seven members of the men's team will lace up their track shoes to race against the best the nation has to offer. It is the most athletes that have qualified for nationals since head coach Phil Jennings joined the Lions program in 2003.

"The last chance meet was huge for a few individuals," noted Jennings. "Meryl Wimberley was the "Lion" of the day, going from pretty far down on the 800 list to 3rd in the country and then coming back to anchor the 4x4 to a time that qualified the team that we hadn't run in that combination yet this year. It also gave an opportunity for our guys that were able to compete at IC4A's last weekend and were already qualified for the meet a chance to tune up in an individual event to gain some confidence going into this week."

Priscilla Senyah (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville), Jianna Spadaccini (Butler, NJ/Butler), and Michelle Wallace (Emerson, NJ/Emerson) are the lone seniors competing on the women's team. Senyah will race in the 100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles, and 4x100-meter relay. She has the fifth-best time in Division III in the 100 hurdles posting 14.17 seconds on her home track at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships. Senyah also qualified for the 100-yard dash this past week at the Lions Last Chance meet with a time of 12.25.

Spadaccini posted the second-fastest time this season in the 800-meter event at 2:09.22. The only athlete to top that time is Marie Borner of Bethel University, who topped out at 2:06.39. Spadaccini will also race in the 4x400 relay race along with freshman Brielle Doremus (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex), junior Kayla Ghanavati (Seaville, NJ/Ocean City), and junior Meryl Wimberly (Farmingdale, NJ/Colts Neck). They posted a qualifying time of 3:51.50 this past Thursday.

Wallace will take to the track in both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000-meter event. She qualified for the 5,000 at The Penn Relays with a time of 17:02.06 and the steeplechase event with a time of 10:48.31 at the Princeton Elite Meet. Wallace earned All-American honors during the 2009-10 indoor track season in the 5000 and distance medley relay.4

Junior Kyle Gilroy (Oak Ridge, NJ/West Milford Twp) has put together a terrific season. Coming off All-American honors during the indoor track season by placing seventh at nationals in the 55-meter hurdles, Gilroy has added to his accomplishments during the 2010 outdoor track season. He was named The Outstanding Male Track Athlete at the NJAC championships and broke his own record last week in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.39. Most recently, he was named Mid-Atlantic Male Track Athlete of the Year.

Gilroy will race in four events which include the 110-hurdles, 400-hurdles, 4x100, and 4x400 relay. He'll compete with a more experienced group in the 4x400 with graduates Rob McGowan (Monroe, NJ/Monroe Twp.), Steven Murray (East Windsor, NJ/Hightstown), and sophomore Justin Worthing (West Orange, NJ/West Orange). 

While the track remains a constant, the preparation for individual and relay events requires a different approach.

"For the individual events, preparing is much different," he explained. "I need to have a fearless mindset along with the absence of lingering thoughts. Distraction is catastrophic. For the relays, every relay guy needs to have complete faith in one another, without that we would not be able to complete for a division title. "

In the 4x100, Gilroy will be joined by sophomores Rob Jiggetts (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville), Chris Medina (Lakewood, NJ/Monsignor Donovan), and freshman Kyle Magliaro (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough). They boast the seventh-best qualifying time of 41.33, less than half a second off the top time of 40.84 held by Wheaton College.

Medina will line up with the 100-meter dash. His time of 10.62 at the NJAC Championships is the sixth-best in 2010, just more than two-tenths of a second off the top time set by Stephen Headley (10.40) of Springfield College.

Junior Miriam Khan (Titusville, NJ/Hopewell Valley) will attempt to earn the title of the fastest sprinter in Division III as she owns the fourth-best time entering the 100-yard dash at 11.97. Only three, one-hundreths of a second separates Khan from the top qualifier as senior Callen Martin of Wilmington College posted 11.94.

Khan will also join Senyah, junior Tiffany Etheredge (Newark, NJ/Central), and freshman Kim Shelus (Fanwood, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) in the 4x100 meter relay.

One of the most pleasant surprises this spring has been sophomore Brianna Brennan (Marlton, NJ/Holy Cross). Brennan, who also plays for the Lions' soccer team in the fall, qualified for the NCAA Championships in the javelin throw. According to Jennings, "Brennan threw a bomb to put herself in 10th in the country." She registered a season-best distance of 42.10 meters at the Lions Last Chance meet stamp her ticket to the NCAAs.

The relay preliminaries are set for Thursday for mens's and women's competition. Gilroy will also run run the 400 hurdles on Thursday while the javelin event for Brennan will begin at 4:00 p.m. that day. The individual races will begin on Friday and Wallace will compete in her second event of nationals (5000-meter race) on Saturday.