Giordano and Whitehorn Ready For NCAA National Championship Meet

EUGENE, Ore. – The Dartmouth women's track & field team will once again see multiple representatives at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship as juniors Dana Giordano (5000m) and Kaitlin Whitehorn (high jump) will compete at the 2015 meet this weekend.

Once again, the NCAA's top outdoor championship will be held at Oregon's historic Hayward Field commonly referred to as TrackTown USA; a venue that is scheduled to host the final collegiate meet of the year through the 2021 season.

For Giordano, nationals are nothing new. Between cross country, indoor and outdoor seasons of competition, the New Jersey native has been to the last six NCAA Championship meets since the start of her sophomore campaign.

Whitehorn, though, will be making her debut on the national level after a near miss last season in her bid to join Giordano, Abbey D'Agostino and Megan Krumpoch at the 2014 meet, also held in Oregon.

A contingent of five Big Green student-athletes made their way west in 2014 as John Bleday and Curtis King joined the trio of women in Eugene. Unlike last year where Dartmouth's events were spread over the course of the four-day meet, Giordano and Whitehorn will both be competing on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday's events will be broadcast live online on ESPN3 beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET, while ESPN2's televised coverage is set to start at 5 p.m. ET and continue through 7:30 p.m. ET.

Giordano's 5000m final will begin at 7 p.m. ET and will be one of the final events of the meet, while Whitehorn and the rest of the jumpers are Saturday's first participants and get underway at 4:30 p.m. ET.

In order to earn All-America status in outdoor track since 2011 an individual must finish in the top eight for First Team and 9-16 Second Team.

QUICK FACTS
Dana Giordano
Class: Junior
Hometown: Bernardsville, New Jersey
Event: 5000m
How She Qualified: Finished fifth in her heat at East Regional on May 30, earning an automatic berth (16:01.57 – 7th overall).
Previous Outdoor National Experience: Finished 22nd in 16:47.81 at the 2014 meet (5000m) also in Oregon
2015 Outdoor Highlights:
·      Ivy League Heptagonal Champion (1500m)
·      Won the 1500m for the second straight year, the fourth straight by a Dartmouth woman in the event.
·      Ran a season-best 15:54.05 at the Mt. Sac Relays on April 17.

Kaitlin Whitehorn
Class: Junior
Hometown: Huntington, New York
Event: High Jump
How She Qualified: Secured one of the East Regional's 12 berths by finishing seventh as she cleared 5-10.5/1.79m.
Previous Outdoor National Experience: Making her first appearance
2015 Outdoor Highlights:
·      Ivy League Heptagonal Champion (High Jump)
·      Won the high jump at Heps for the second straight year. In doing so, Whitehorn became just the second Dartmouth woman to win the high jump twice and in consecutive years, joining Laura Morrell who won the event in both 1979 and 1980. Prior to Whitehorn's first title in New Haven last season, Morrell's second win three and a half decades ago was the most recent Big Green women's high jump victory outside.
·      Her 5-10.5/1.79m in Jacksonville at regionals was the best outdoor mark of her career and the second-best in Dartmouth history after her 1.80m school record set during the indoor season this past February.

Schedules