Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Pleger To Compete For National Title Thursday
June 10, 2015 | Women's Track and Field
Watch on ESPN3
Live Results
Oregon Championship Central / NCAA Championship Central
Practice Day Photo Gallery (via Craig Bell, University Marketing)
Conquering The Mind Game (Sentinel-Tribune preview story by Thomas Schmeltz)
Eugene, Ore. - BGSU redshirt senior Brooke Pleger will make her third appearance at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships Thursday, entering the meet as one of the favorites in the hammer throw. Pleger holds eight of the ten longest throws in the country this year and has a nation's best toss of 69.72 meter (228-feet-9), a mark which stands as the Mid-American Conference and school records. The hammer throw takes place at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon Thursday at 4:30 pm ET. Pleger will be one of 24 competitors for the national championship and will throw in the second flight of 12 student-athletes, which should begin around 5:30 pm ET.
HOW TO FOLLOW
ESPN3 will begin coverage of the National Championships Thursday at 1 pm ET. Complete coverage of the day takes place on ESPNU from 7-8:30 pm ET and then on ESPN from 8:30-10:30 pm ET. Throughout the competition, fans can follow along through the links above or on social media at the following locations:
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Twitter - @BGAthletics and @BGXCTrack
Instagram – BGFalcons
Facebook – BGSU Athletics
YouTube – FalconAthletics
THE HAMMER THROW FORMAT
Twenty-four student-athletes qualified for the NCAA National Championships in the hammer throw by placing in the top 12 at one of the two regional preliminary meets (Brooke Pleger placed first in the East and had the second-longest throw of either of the regionals). The national championships will be broken up into two flights with the first flight consisting of competitors who placed seventh through 12th at the regional rounds. The second flight, out of which Pleger will compete, will consist of competitors who finished first through sixth at the regional rounds. Each competitor will get three throws in their flight and only the best of those three throws counts.
After both flights are complete, the top nine competitors will advance to finals immediately following and will take three more throws. Distances carry over to finals and the top eight finishers will earn a spot on the podium and All-American status.
IN HER WORDS
"I feel more at ease knowing the routine, just being comfortable with what I have to do," Brooke Pleger said following practice Wednesday at Hayward Field. "We have some markers that we look for the day before (a meet). We looked for the things we usually look for, it looked good, so I feel good. I was able to connect with a lot of the throws so I feel good going into tomorrow."
BROOKE PLEGER SEND OFF
BGSU Athletics held a send off for Brooke Pleger Monday prior to leaving Ohio for Oregon. Video of that send off can be viewed below.
PLEGER AMONG THE COLLEGIATE ALL-TIME GREATS
With a throw of 228-feet-9 in the hammer throw at the MAC Championships, Brooke Pleger ranks tenth among all collegiate hammer throwers in NCAA history. Listed below is the entire top 10 list of collegians:
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| Top Collegiate Hammer Throwers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distance | Name (School) | Date |
| 239-4 | Jenny Dahlgren (Georgia) | 4/13/07 |
| 237-10 | Brittany Riley (Southern Illinois) | 4/28/07 |
| 233-1 | Amanda Bingson (UNLV) | 5/26/12 |
| 231-4 | Gwen Berry (Southern Illinois) | 4/30/11 |
| 230-7 | Julia Ratcliffe (Princeton) | 4/19/14 |
| 230-3 | Eva Orban (USC) | 3/14/08 |
| 229-10 | Chelsea Cassulo (Arizona State) | 5/23/13 |
| 229-9 | Loree Smith (Colorado State) | 5/14/05 |
| 229-1 | Candice Scott (Florida) | 4/22/04 |
| 228-9 | Brooke Pleger (Bowling Green) | 5/14/15 |
THE MARKS TO CONSIDER
Brooke Pleger will be chasing history Thursday as she looks to become the first women's track and field national champion in program history. Here are the milestone distances she is chasing:
63.71 meters (209-feet): Pleger's mark at the 2013 National Championships to place seventh
64.48 meters (211-feet-6): Pleger's mark at the 2014 National Championships to place third
65.88 meters (216-feet-2): Distance needed to break into top 10 in BGSU history (of which Pleger already owns all 10 spots)
66.88 meters (219-feet-5): Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe's winning distance at the 2014 National Championships
69.72 meters (228-feet-9): Pleger's personal best, school record and MAC record
70.72 meters (232-feet): The NCAA Championship record set by Georgia's Jenny Dahlgren in 2007
72.81 meters (238-feet-10): The US-leading throw this year by Amber Campbell
72.94 meters (239-feet-3): The collegiate record set by Dahlgren in 2007
77.73 meters (255-feet): The world-leading throw this year by Poland's Anita Wlodarzyk
HAMMERLYTICS: ANALYTICS OF THE HAMMER THROW
Only eight competitors at the National Championships have thrown at least 65 meters once this year. Among those, Brooke Pleger stacks up well. Her average legal throw this year was 66.62 meters, easily the best in the country (Southern Illinois' DeAnna Price is second at 64.62 meters and Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe is third at 64.08 meters). But Pleger is also the most consistent, throwing at least 60 meters on 84.9 percent of her tosses this year (Ratcliffe is second at 78.6 percent and Kansas State's Sara Savatovic is third at 72.4 percent). Pleger really shines when it comes to the extremely long-distance throws though, going over 65 meters on 66.7 percent of her tosses. Nobody else comes close with Price ranking second at 35.6 percent and Ratcliffe third at 26.8 percent. Pleger also doesn't hurt herself as she has fouled only 12.1 percent of the time this year, ranking second behind Savatovic at 10.3 percent.
ALL-TIME POINT SCORERS AT BGSU
Only five Falcons have ever scored points at an NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship (Beth Manson and Brooke Pleger have both done so twice), with Pleger's third place finish a year ago ranking as the top result in BGSU history. Only Manson and Pleger have been two-time All-Americans and Pleger will look to become the first women's three-time All-American in BGSU Athletics Department history.
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| BGSU National Championship Point Scorers | |||
| Student-Athlete | Year | Event | Place |
| Brooke Pleger | 2014 | Hammer Throw | 3rd |
| Beth Manson | 1989 | Discus | 6th |
| Huina Han | 1998 | Triple Jump | 6th |
| Emily Cokinos | 1997 | Javelin | 7th |
| Brooke Pleger | 2013 | Hammer Throw | 7th |
| Stephanie Heldt | 2001 | High Jump | T7th |
| Beth Manson | 1988 | Discus | 8th |
| * Deb Romsek placed fourth in the 400 hurdles at the 1976 AIAW Collegiate National Championship prior to the NCAA sanctioning women's track and field. | |||
PLEGER DOMINATES THE AWARDS
Rightfully so, Brooke Pleger has earned a veritable plethora of awards this year. Among them are three MAC Field Athlete of the Week honors (and ten total for her career), the MAC Most Outstanding Field Athlete of the Year award (for the second time in her career), First Team All-MAC (for the third time in her career), Capital One Academic All-District (for the second time in her career with Academic All-American pending), and most recently the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Field Athlete of the Year for the second time in her career. Pleger is the only Falcon to ever earn a region athlete of the year award by the USTFCCCA and she beat out student-athletes from 33 other schools across the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin for the recognition.
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Players Mentioned
