Three Bearcats Qualify for NCAA Indoor Championships

CINCINNATI - Three members of the University of Cincinnati track & field program will compete in the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., next week as all three posted marks that rank them among the Top 16 in the nation following last week's conference championship weekend. The women will be represented by Caisja Chandler in the 200m while the men will see both Chris Borzor (200m) and Damien Berthenet (heptathlon) compete for the Bearcats. The meet is set to be held March 13-14 inside the Albuquerque Convention Center.

// THE SCHEDULE
All three Bearcats will compete on the first day of action with one assured of competing the second. Berthenet is set for the seven-event heptathlon that will hold four events Friday (60m, long jump, shot put & high jump) before closing out the event Saturday with the final three events (60m hurdles, pole vault & 1,000m). The competition opens Friday with the heptathlon 60m dash at 11 a.m. MT (1 p.m. ET) while the 60m hurdles will open up competition Saturday at 10 a.m. MT (12 p.m. ET). The sprinters will not compete until late Friday as their semifinals will start at 7:40 p.m. MT (9:40 p.m. ET) for the women and 8:15 p.m. MT (10:15 p.m. ET) for the men. Should either advance, the final will be held Saturday with the men running first at 5:50 p.m. MT (7:50 p.m. ET) and the women at 6 p.m. MT (8 p.m. ET).

// FLYING FRENCHMAN
Berthenet will be competing in his first NCAA event after he scoring a PR 5,693 points to win the title at the American Athletic Conference Championships and post the #10 mark of the year nationally, which also earned him earlier this week the AAC Male Most Outstanding Performance Award. Berthenet, who also broke the school record in the event as well as the heptathlon shot put mark while posting two other marks that ranked #2 all-time at UC, will become the second UC man to compete in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships after Alex Bloom was the first in 2018. Bloom, the previous record holder before Berthenet's big meet in Birmingham, finished 12th at the 2018 meet to earn USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honors as well. Berthenet will be the 15th different man to compete for UC at the indoor national championships all-time.

// CHANDLER CRUISING
Chandler is making her NCAA debut as well and will become just the ninth woman in UC history to compete in doors while becoming just the second runner ever. The AAC runner-up in both the 60m and 200m this year, Chandler broke the school records in both events with bests of 7.30 and 23.22, the later coming at the AAC meet. Chandler's selection is the second on the track for UC behind Kathy Klump, who was fourth in the nation in the 200m run at the 2012 meet. Chandler also continues a run of selections for the Bearcats as at least one woman has qualified to the national indoor meet for the sixth year in a row. Her time of 23.22 will rank her 13th heading into the meet.

// BORZOR BLAZING
The 16th man to represent UC at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Borzor is coming off a huge weekend in which he won the 200m in school-record time of 20.84 while taking second in the 400m in another PR of 47.43. Borzor, who's performances earned him the 2020 AAC Male Most Valuable Performer award following the meet, is set to become the first UC man to race the 200m indoors at the NCAA meet and the second overall behind Kenny Wade, who raced at the 2004 outdoor meet. While not the first sprinter to compete at the indoor meet, he is the first to do so in quite a while as the last was Jim Schnur, who competed in the 440y dash in 1978.