Sacramento, Calif. (June 4, 2007)? A June trip to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships has become commonplace for Dan Mecca during his time at Manhattan. Mecca has accompanied an athlete to the national championship meet in each of his 14 years as the Jaspers' chief mentor. This year, Mecca has three travel partners as Milan Jotanovic, Dexter Jules, and Zoran Loncar all qualified.
The group left New York early Monday morning for Sacramento, Calif., which will serve as the site of the championships for the fourth consecutive year. The meet commences on Wednesday, May 6 at Sacramento State University's Hornet Stadium.
Upon arrival, Jotanovic, a junior shot putter, will be the only travel party member besides Mecca to have attended the championships for three consecutive years. Loncar, a senior, will be making his third appearance at the meet, but was unable to string together three straight after not qualifying his sophomore year. Jules, a classmate of Jotanovic, will be making his debut at the NCAA Championships in Friday afternoon's triple jump competition.
The two-time NCAA Indoor All-American Jotanovic is coming off a huge victory at the NCAA East Regional Championships and may be hungrier for success at the outdoor championships more than any other entrant. Despite qualifying for the shot finals in both of his previous trips to Sacramento, the four-time IC4A Champion has yet to earn NCAA Outdoor All-America honors.
The 2007 season has been Jotanovic's best yet as a Jasper. Continuing to establish himself as the greatest shot putter Manhattan has seen, Jotanovic finished fourth overall at the NCAA Indoor Championships this past March with a then-personal record of 19.56m. Jotanovic upped that PR in winning his third straight MAAC Outdoor title with a new meet record throw of 19.60m. Three weeks after the MAAC meet, he set a new personal best of 19.72m en route to capturing the NCAA East Regional crown.
Jules earned the right to join Jotanovic in Sacramento by gaining automatic entry with a fourth-place finish at the regional meet. Showing that he is fully recovered from an injury that plagued him during indoor season, Jules also set a new personal best at the NCAA East Regional by triple jumping 15.86m. His previous outdoor personal record was 15.71m from his winning effort at the IC4A Championships on May 13.
Loncar returns to the NCAA Championships after placing 17th overall at last year's competition. The senior hammer thrower, who is the only one of the three Jaspers to qualify via an at-large berth, recently finished seventh overall (62.07m) at the NCAA East Regional Championships. His regional result was not good enough for an automatic bid (go to the top five finishers in each region), but it did make him eligible for one of the nation' s six at-large entries.
Entering the regional meet, Loncar was 25th overall on the descending order list with a mark of 63.21m. Fortunately for the senior, that seasonal best performance was good enough to keep him amongst the nation's top 26 competitors even after the regional championships transpired.
The three national qualifiers were joined by women's triple jumper Tiina Magi and men's hammer thrower Seid Mujanovic in earning NCAA All-Region honors at the East Regional Championships, which were held in Gainesville, Fla. May 25-26.
Mujanovic, a freshman, made the NCAA All-Region Team after finishing ahead of Loncar in Gainesville. Mujanovic's throw of 62.08m placed him sixth overall. Magi, a senior and two-time ECAC triple jump champion, finished eighth overall by triple jumping a season best 12.94m. Although they were both eligible, neither athlete was as fortunate as Loncar and missed out on at-large berths.
The 2007 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships run from Wednesday, June 6 through Saturday, June 9. GoJaspers.com will provide complete coverage on Manhattan's three participants.