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Filias & Smith Selected To Compete At NCAA Championship

Dave Filias (left) and Caleb Smith (right) each qualified to compete in the upcoming Division III NCAA Championships.
Dave Filias and Caleb Smith will represent the Middlebury men's track and field team after qualifying for the NCAA Championship. The top-22 athletes in each event earned entry into the meet. 
 
FILIAS' HIGHLIGHTS
  • Filias is making his second-consecutive appearance at the national meet.
  • He qualified in the hammer throw, increasing his personal-best distance in the event by 2.38 meters throughout the season.
  • He is the two-time defending champion in the discipline at the NESCAC Championship, winning this year's title with a school-record toss of 61.22 meters.
  • Filias is ranked sixth entering the national meet, just 2.44 meters out of the second spot.
  • He finished 15th in the event at last year's NCAA Championship with a toss of 55.74m.
  • The Panther has claimed five event victories this spring, highlighted by wins at the Division III New England Championships and the conference championship. His triumphs garnered him all-region and All-NESCAC accolades, respectively.
  • He was tabbed the NESCAC Field Athlete of the Week on March 26 after claiming two event titles during the team's spring trip to southern California to start the outdoor season.
SMITH'S HIGHLIGHTS
  • Smith will be making his first appearance in the outdoor championships.
  • The first-year Panther qualified for the meet in the decathlon. He is seeded ninth with a 10-event total of 6,633 points set during the Division III New England Championships. 
  • During his victorious effort, Smith won six events, including the long (6.99m) and high jumps (1.85m), as well as the shot put (11.61m) on the first day, followed by victories in the 110m hurdles (16.15 seconds), the discus (35.79m) and the javelin (51.43m) to earn top honors by 837 points and tally all-region accolades.  
  • Smith was tabbed an All-NESCAC selection in the javelin, hurling the spear to a personal-best distance of 54.09m.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
  • Justin Eichler of Wisconsin-Platteville, who finished seventh at last spring's NCAA Championship, leads the field in the hammer throw with a top distance of 67.32m this spring. Nathan Williams from Stevenson who finished 18th a year ago returns with a second-ranked toss of 63.92m, while Wilmington's Nathan Borgan (63.55m) and Dubuque's Cade Collier (62.77m) have posted the third and fourth-best distances entering the championship.
  • The 2023 national champion returns to the field in the decathlon looking to defend his title from a year ago. Last spring, Wisconsin Eau-Claire's Mitch Stegeman won the event with 7,165 points. He is seeded first heading into competition this year with a season-high 6,871 points. Also returning from last spring is Charlie Nolan (Wisconsin-Oshkosh), Thomas Rich (Carnegie Mellon) and Jackson Anderson (Williams). Those athletes are ranked second, third and fourth, respectively, and each placed in the top-10 spots at last year's event.
CHAMPIONSHIP INFO Competition will take place May 23-25 at the Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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