Kansas City, Mo. -- John Brown University will send five student-athletes to the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, the largest national championship contingent the Golden Eagles have fielded since relaunching the program in 2019, the NAIA National Office announced Wednesday afternoon (May 16).
The 74th Annual NAIA Men's and 45th Annual NAIA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Championships are set for May 20-22 at Karl Straus Track in Asheville, North Carolina.
Leading the group is senior Chase Schermer, who enters Asheville as the ninth-ranked steeplechaser in the nation after running a 9:14.75 at the Arkansas Twilight on May 8, a personal best, a program record and the first NAIA A standard in men's track and field history. A returning national qualifier who finished 10th at nationals during his sophomore season with a time of 9:18.72, Schermer arrives having shaved almost four seconds off his previous career-best mark in 2024.
He won't be running the barrier race alone. Sophomore Samuel Burkett and freshman Payton Brack both earned NAIA B standards at the Little Rock Invitational on April 17, with Burkett clocking a 9:21.56 to rank 24th nationally and Brack posting a 9:21.85 to rank 26th. Three Golden Eagles in the steeplechase at a single national championship meet is a program record.
On the women's side, freshman Katalina Chan arrives in Asheville having rewritten the JBU record book twice over. Chan set program records in both the 400 meters and the 400-meter hurdles, becoming the first Golden Eagle since 2022 and only the second since the program's 2019 reboot to earn bids in two individual events at nationals. She ran a 55.55 in the 400 meters at the SAC Championships on April 23, ranking 18th nationally, then followed it six weeks later with a 1:01.65 in the 400-meter hurdles at the Arkansas Twilight to rank 15th nationally. Her hurdles mark missed the NAIA A standard of 1:01.58 by seven hundredths of a second.
The last JBU athlete to accomplish the feat was Allika Pearson in 2022, when the then-junior finished 15th in the 5,000 meters and seventh in the 10,000 meters.
Freshman Abigail Stucker also earned a bid in the 1,500 meters, posting a 4:41.62 at the Arkansas Twilight to claim an at-large berth. With only 16 athletes meeting or exceeding the NAIA B standard in the event, the field was widened to include Stucker, who ranks 42nd nationally.
Stucker and Chan open competition Wednesday, May 20, with the women's 1,500-meter and 400-meter hurdles prelims at 2:50 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Schermer, Burkett and Brack follow that evening when the men's steeplechase prelims go off at 6:55 p.m. Chan returns Thursday for the women's 400-meter prelims at 3:00 p.m. Should all five advance, Friday's finals begin with the steeplechase at 1:45 p.m., with Stucker's 1,500 meters at 2:10 p.m., Chan's 400 meters at 2:40 p.m. and the 400-meter hurdles at 3:15 p.m.
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