Track and Field -- Augsburg's Desman Oakley qualifies for NCAA Championships!

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MINNEAPOLIS (5/22/01) -- Augsburg College's Desman Oakley (Sr., Indianola, Iowa) will compete in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in the 110-meter hurdles, it was announced on Monday evening.

Oakley had provisionally qualified for the national meet with a school-record 14.62-second effort at the Gustavus Adolphus College meet on April 28. The time stands as the 14th-fastest among the 16 competitors in the national championship field. The fastest time, 14.16 seconds, belongs to Chris Cobbs of Lincoln University (Pa.).

This season, Oakley earned Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in the indoor 55-meter hurdles and outdoor 110-meter hurdles. He also won the conference title in the indoor 60-meter hurdles in 1999.

The NCAA Division III championships will be held at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. Men's 110-hurdle trials will be held on Friday (5/25) at 5 p.m., with the finals set for Saturday (5/26) at 1:15 p.m. The top eight of 16 entries will make the finals and earn All-America honors.

Oakley is just the second Augsburg men's track and field athlete ever to qualify for an NCAA national championship competition; the first was Dave Trost, in the high jump in 1981. Since 1981, Augsburg has had 41 individual entries, and 14 athletes (12 female, two male), qualify for national championship competition in track and field.

Since 1981, Augsburg has had 25 All-American performances and nine national championship individual performances in track and field.