Postseason play begins for track, tennis

The Northwestern women’s tennis team and track and field squads will be in action this weekend as they try to extend their seasons.
The tennis women will start their run to the GPAC Women’s Tennis Championship day as they square off against Hastings on Friday morning. The competition is being held in Fremont, Neb., and the Raiders are fifth seeded out of six teams. NW is looking to get over the hump and improve on their  7-9 (4-4) record.
NW had a tough loss to Hastings in early April, falling 5-4 against their conference foe. Sophomore Kellie Korver (8-7), senior Laura Starr (3-9) and senior Nessa Summers (10-4) all picked up wins in singles play last time. Junior Julie Mineart and Korver (8-7) kept the Raiders alive with a win in doubles, as did Summers and freshman Missy Yorchak (8-4).
The rest of the Raider singles will lineup include Mineart (5-10) in the No. 1 spot, senior Kate Mannenbach (2-13), and Yorchak (1-3). Starr and Mannenbach will also team up to be the other doubles spot.
The winner will go on to face Nebraska Wesleyan on Saturday.
On the track, NW will have the opportunity to host the GPAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday. This will be the final meet for the athletes to compete and have a chance to qualify for the national meet, which will be held on May 26.
Events will take place Friday at 1 p.m., and continue again on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
The Raiders are coming off a good performance at the Sioux Falls Invite, where eligibility-freshman Matt Huseman and sophomore Mark Johnson won their field events. Huseman jumped 6-09 in the high jump, and Johnson leapt 24-07.25 in the long jump pit.
The male sprinters also contributed, as freshmen Jesse Selgeby and Jeriah Dunk and sophomore Brandon Hammock each blazed their way to top-five finishes in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.
On the women’s side, junior Stacey Dietrich won the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.9, and freshman Dawn Gildersleeve took home the title in the 800-meter. Junior Liz Stevens brought home first place in the javelin with a toss of 127-08.
The Raiders are both expecting to improve on last year’s performance in the conference meet, where the women finished in eighth place, and the men took 11th place out of the twelve teams competing. This certainly look doable, as there are 23 events where at least one athlete in a NW uniform is currently ranked in the top 20. All-conference honors will be awarded to the top eight finishers in each event.
High expectations have been placed on many track and field participants who have already qualified for the national meet.  Automatic-qualifiers are Hammock, Huseman, junior Liz Stevens, seniors Charity Miles and Logan Ogden and the women’s 4×800 team are all heading to Indiana in late May.
Gildersleeve and Dunk have both provisionally qualified in their respective events.