Seven members of the Central College men’s and women’s track and field program are in North Carolina for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships including a few who missed out on a chance to compete the last time a national meet was in North Carolina. North Carolina A&T State University and the Greensboro Sports Foundation are hosting this year’s meet at the Irwin Belk Track in Greensboro. The three-day meet kicks off today.

Mary Gray, Kennedy Morris and Brock Lewis are all making a return trip to North Carolina while Gillian Streit is back at the national meet after competing at the 2019 outdoor championship. Kiki Pingel, Sam Beatty and Caleb Silver are making their national debuts.

Gray and Pingel will complete their first national women’s heptathlon competitions. Gray qualified eighth with 4,625 points and Pingel is 11th with 4,582 points. At the 2019 indoor national meet, Gray finished 17th in the pentathlon and was qualified for the 2020 version. Gray has won seven combined events conference titles and Pingel finished on the podium with Gray six times.

Streit and Morris will also compete together in the women’s discus throw. Streit had her best toss in the opening meet of the year (149-3) while Morris had her qualifying mark on the last possible day (148-3). They enter the competition seeded No. 11 and No. 12.

Men’s long jumper Brock Lewis started hitting his stride at the end of the season, recording his two best scoring marks of the season in his final two competitions. He enters the national meet with the fifth-best qualifying jump (24-2.5).

Sam Beatty cleared the high jump bar at 6-9 (2.06 meters) on April 30 at a home triangular meet to secure his first national meet appearance. It is a loaded field where all 17 men’s jumpers have cleared 6-8.75 (2.05 meters) this season.

Caleb Silver ran the first 3,000-meter steeplechase of his career on April 16 in a time of 9:45.42. Not even a month later, he crossed the line in 9:21.31 to win the American Rivers Conference title on May 14. The coaching staff gave him one last chance to punch a ticket to the national meet and he ran the second-fastest time in program history, 9:10.50, and is seeded No. 11 this weekend.