Courtesy Bridgewater State Sports Information

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Three Bridgewater State University student-athletes will be competing at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships held on May 23-25 on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.


On the women’s side, senior Molly Rouillard (Dartmouth, Mass.) will be participating in both the 1,500 and 5,000-meter runs, while on the men’s side senior Michael McPherson (Mansfield, Mass.) qualified in the shot put and junior Joshua Danner-Hicks (Haverhill, Mass.) will compete in the triple jump.  Rouillard also qualified in the 10,000-meter run, but will not participate in the event.


Rouillard will be making her second straight appearance at the outdoor championships and her fourth consecutive at an NCAA event.  She is seeded seventh in the 5,000 as she posted a school-record time of 16:55.72 to win the NEICAAA Championships earlier this month at Stonehill College.  Rouillard also recorded a time of 4:31.17 at the Princeton Larry Ellis Invitational back in April to earn the 12th seed in the 1,500.


Last week, Rouillard was selected as the USTFCCCA Division III New England Region Women’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year.  She finished 12th in the 10,000-meter run at last season’s outdoor championships, and garnered All-American honors with a seventh place showing in the mile run at the indoor championships back in March.  Rouillard also place 50th at the NCAA Division III Cross County Championships last fall.


McPherson, who is making his second straight appearance at the outdoor championships and third consecutive at an NCAA event, is seeded 11th in the shot put.  He recorded his season-best distance of 55 feet, 6.25 inches (16.92 meters) at the NEICAAA Championships earlier this month at Stonehill.


Last spring, McPherson earned All-American honors as he placed eighth in the shot put at the 2012 outdoor championships.  He also finished tenth in the shot at the indoor championships back in March.


Danner-Hicks is making his debut at the NCAA Championships and is seeded 15th in the triple jump.  He recorded his season-best and school-record leap of 47 feet, seven inches (14.50 meters) at the MASCAC/New England Alliance Championships held at Bridgewater State in April.


Rouillard will be competing in the preliminaries of the 1,500 on Thursday afternoon at 4:30 (CDT) with the finals going off on Saturday at 2:50 PM.  The 5,000 gets underway on Saturday at 5:30 PM.


The men’s triple jump is the first event of the day on Saturday at 12:35 PM, while the shot put gets underway also on Saturday at 4:05 PM.