Track & Field | 3/1/2011 6:04:10 PM

[Meet schedule] [Men's accepted entries] [Women's accepted entries]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - For the third straight season Annan Applebee will be representing Western Oregon University at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships however, this season she will have company as the men's distance medley relay team also earned entry into the meet, which was releases on Tuesday (Mar. 1).

The men's distance medley relay team will feature Kyle Larson starting the race and running the 1,200 meter leg. He will be followed by Matt Kaino running the 400m and Connor Kasler legging out the 800m. Chris Reed will anchor the group by running the final 1,600m.

The DMR team will enter Nations as the No. 6 team in the field with an accepted entry time of 9:55.06. The group posted that time at the Flotrack Husky Classic on Feb. 11, to set the Western Oregon school record and move into second place in GNAC history.

"(Reaching Nations) was a goal they all set for themselves a long time ago," said Western Oregon head coach Mike Johnson. "They don't believe they have run their best race yet, and each can still do more.

"This is a challenging event but we relish the opportunity," continued Johnson. "Time becomes irrelevant when you are running for place."

Applebee has become a fixture for the Wolves at Nationals. This is the third straight season the senior from Gladstone, Ore. (Gladstone High School) will be competing in the 800m. After finishing one spot out of the finals in 2009 (ninth), Applebee came down with an illness in 2010 and placed 12th. This season she earned her NCAA provisional standard and season-best time in the race in the final meet of the year. She posted an adjusted time of 2:12.55 to claim 10th place in Division II.

By earning this trip to Nationals, Annan Applebee became Western Oregon's all-time leader in trips to the national championships for a runner. She has earned three trips to the indoor championships, two to outdoors and the other came this season with the women's cross country team.

"Not many student-athletes that can claim to have been in that many NCAA Championships," noted Johnson. "This is just another opportunity for Annan, albeit a very nice one."

Applebee and Reed are also the only Western Oregon student-athletes to ever compete in the NCAA Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor National Championships.

The NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held, Mar. 11-12, in Albuquerque, N.M. The prelims of the women's 800m will be run on Friday (Mar. 11) at 5:50 p.m., and the DMR will be run later that evening at 7:45 p.m.

Western Oregon also had six other individuals which all earned NCAA provisional standards which did not make Nationals due to the limited number of accepted entries. On the women's side, Janelle Everetts had a provisional time in the 800m and Ashley Potter in the triple jump. In the men's field events, Kyle Lane qualified in the long jump and Jason Slowey in the shot put. Chris Reed and Kyle Larson would have both earned individual entries to Nationals in the mile, but both chose to sacrifice for the good of the distance medley relay team.