GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Four members of the Tusculum University women's track and field team will compete at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championship, which will be held May 21-23 at Emporia, Kansas.
Seniors Jahzara Hart and Shanice Cox and sophomores Qitarah Castlin and Kori Moore will participate in a total of eight events during the three-day meet, including the 4x100-meter relay where the quartet is seeded first in the field.
The quartet all earned All-America honors for the Pioneers at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championship in March, with Hart placing fifth in both the 60 meters and 200 meters to take first-team honors while Cox, Castlin and Moore were all second-team All-Americans to help the Pioneers to tie for 25th place in the team standings.
The eight entries at nationals for Tusculum surpasses the seven total entries for the Pioneer program in its history. Four of the previous seven entries were last season, when Hart was All-America in both the 100 meters and the 4x100-meter relay. The Pioneers tied for 23rd at last year's NCAA Outdoor Championship after tying for 21st place in 2024.
Hart will compete in the 100 and 200 meters along with the 4x100 relay, the same events in which she took gold medals to be the Track Athlete of the Meet at the South Atlantic Conference championship. The Raleigh, North Carolina native is the top seed in the 100 meters at 11.11 seconds and is seeded 13th in the 200 meters at 23.48 seconds.
Cox is seeded 12th in the 100 meters at 11.48 seconds after placing third in the event at the SAC Championship. The Minneapolis, Minnesota native was also part of last year's 4x100 relay that took fourth place and is seeded first this year at 43.97 seconds.
Castlin will also run in the 100 and 200 with Hart, and is seeded ninth in the 100 at 11.41 seconds and fifth in the 200 at 23.26 seconds. The native of Griffin, Georgia ran second to Hart in both events at the SAC Championship and runs the leadoff leg on the 4x100 relay for the Pioneers.
Moore is entered in the 100 hurdles and the 200 meters, and qualified seventh in the 200 at the Lee Last Chance Meet with a time of 23.35 seconds to go with her hurdles time of 13.48 seconds that is fifth in the field. The Jonesboro, Georgia native also qualified for nationals for the 400 hurdles but did not declare in order to focus on the two shorter races along with the 4x100 relay.
Tusculum will begin competition on Thursday, May 21 with preliminaries in the 4x100 relay at 6:00 p.m. followed by the 100 meters at 7:25 p.m. On Friday, May 22 the 200 meters will have preliminaries at 6:45 p.m. with the 100 hurdles trials at 7:50 p.m. Finals in all events will be Saturday, May 23 starting with the 4x100 at 4:40 p.m. and followed by the 100 hurdles at 5:25 p.m., 100 meters at 6:05 p.m. and 200 meters at 7:20 p.m. (all times Eastern).
