WAVERLY, Ia. – Luke Patten (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex), Matt McWilliams (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and Paige Allen (Butler, PA/Butler) all competed on day one of the 2016 NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships Thursday.

Qualifying with the 12^th-best pole vault height this season, Patten finished his first NCAA championship appearance in 17^th place. He raised 4.65m (15' 3").

McWilliams entered the championships with in the 20 spot in the 1500m. Thursday, he tied for the fastest qualifying time with a school record-breaking time of 3:48.73 and will run in the finals on Saturday.

Allen came into qualifying with the 13^th-fasted 200m time in the country. In prelims, she ran a 24.92 to finish 14^th, unfortunately not qualifying for the finals.

Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion) competes in the shot put and Allen looks to qualify for the 100m finals through the prelims tomorrow.