Bates Women's track sending team-record six athletes to NCAA Championships

Allison Hill, shown racing in the 60-meter hurdles at the Maine State indoor meet on Feb. 5, 2016, is one of a team-record six athletes who will compete for the Bates women's track and field team at the 2016 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. (Tom Leonard '78)

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Bates women's track and field team will send a program-record six student-athletes to this weeks' NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, with the field being announced Monday by the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee.

Sophomore Sally Ceesay (Bronx, N.Y.) will return to NCAAs to compete in the triple jump for the second straight year, based on her program-record season-high mark of 38 feet, 6.75 inches.

Meanwhile junior Allison Hill (Brunswick, Maine) will make her NCAA Championship debut in the 60-meter hurdles, based on her program-record, season-best time of 8.86 seconds.

And for the fourth time in the past five years, Bates will also compete in the distance medley relay at NCAAs. Bates is the fifth seed out of 12 teams in the race, based on its flat-track time of 11:53.98 run at Tufts on Saturday. Senior Isabelle Unger (Charlotte, Vt.) ran the leadoff leg of 1,200 meters, followed by junior Claire Markonic (Millerton, N.Y.) in the 400-meter leg, first-year Ayden Eickhoff (Corvallis, Mont.) in the 800-meter leg and junior Jessica Wilson (Cumberland, Maine) in the final 1,600-meter leg.

Markonic has participated in the event in both the past two of years, earning two All-America honors in the process. Unger and Wilson have both competed once at NCAAs and are both one-time All-Americans.

The championships will be held March 11-12 at the Charles Benson Bear '39 Recreation and Athletic Center in Grinnell, Iowa, with Grinnell College serving as the official host.

All six Bates students were also named New England All-Region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, for ranking among the top three in their events in the crowded New England region.

Accepted Entries -- 2016 NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships