Shelby Bradley | Sports Co-Editor

Saturday, March 11, the NCAA Championship track meet was held at Grinnell College with one Buena Vista University (BVU) Beaver participating. Junior Ben Sampson made it to the Championship meet in the 800 meter run with a qualifying time of 1:53.

This is Sampson’s first time qualifying for the Track and Field Championships for both indoor and outdoor.

“It was really exciting to qualify and have a chance to run and compete at the national level,” Sampson said.

Aside from making it to the national meet, Sampson did no feel this race was his best. Sampson finished 12th out of the 15 runners in the preliminaries with a time of 1:56.05, which is nearly 3 seconds slower than his qualifying time and did not allow him to advance into the finals.

“The experience was definitely something to learn from and it will drive me to work eve harder to get back to that stage again for another chance at becoming an All-American,” Sampson said.

Both the men and women’s Beaver track teams will begin their outdoor seasons Apr. 1, at the Wartburg College Outdoor Select Meet.

Photo by Kyle Wiebers