The qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships were announced on Friday evening, with four members of the University of Rochester women's team making the field.
 
Senior Megan Bell will be joined by sophomores Nora Chen, Eva Ciuffetelli and Raquella Casserino at the national championships taking place May 22-24 at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, with the North Coast Athletic Conference and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission serving as the event host.
 
Overall, the top-22 declared student-athletes for each individual event made the field, with the top-16 declared relay teams also being selected.
 
All four runners make up the Yellowjackets 4x400 meter relay that qualified for the event, while Bell, Chen and Ciuffetelli also will compete in individual events throughout the championships. Bell will run in the 800 meters, with both Chen and Ciuffetelli making the field in the 400 meter hurdles.
 
Rochester's 4x400 meter relay will be making its fifth straight appearance at outdoor nationals, with the Yellowjackets placing third, sixth, second and third over the last four championships. The team of Bell, Chen, Casserino and Ciuffetelli qualified for the meet with a time of 3:43.84, sitting fourth among the qualifying teams in the event. That time was run at the St. John Fisher Cardinal Last Chance Meet on Sunday.
 
Bell enters the 800 meters as the second seed after running a school record time of 2:05.34 back at the William & Mary Colonial Relays in early April. The senior is making her third appearance at outdoor NCAA's, qualifying in the 400 meters and 4x400 meter relay in 2023 and last season in the 800 meters and 4x400 meter relay. She is a three-time All-American outdoors, and finished fourth in Division III in the 800 meters last season, running a time of 2:09.03 during the 2024 final.
 
For Chen, the sophomore is making her second straight appearance in the 400 meter hurdles at outdoor nationals after finishing ninth in 2024, claiming Second Team All-America honors. This season, Chen will be the #3 seed at the event heading into the competition after posting a new Rochester record time of 1:00.40 last Sunday at the Cardinal Last Chance Meet.
 
Ciuffetelli qualifies for her first collegiate national championships as an individual during the outdoor season, making the field in the 400 meter hurdles. The sophomore enters the event seeded 12th and qualified for the competition on Thursday afternoon following a runner-up finish in a time of 1:01.55 at the All-Atlantic Regional Track & Field Championships.
 
Both Chen and Ciuffetelli qualifying for nationals make that event the second busiest events for Rochester runners at NCAA's during the outdoor championships. The pair will be the 10th and 11th all-time qualifiers, with Chen's ninth place result last season being the top result in school history. Bell's 800 meter qualification is the fifth in UR history outdoors, while the relay has qualified at outdoor NCAA's a total of five times.
 
Looking ahead to the schedule of events, Chen and CIuffetelli will opening things up on Thursday evening in the 400 meter hurdle preliminaries at 6:25 pm. Later in the evening, the pair will be joined by Bell and Casserino for the 4x400 meter relay preliminaries at 8:15 pm. On Friday, Bell takes to the track in the 800 meter preliminary heats at 4:15 pm.
 
Should individuals or the relay make the finals on Saturday, the 800 meter finals take place first at 2:50 pm, followed by the 400 meter hurdle finals at 3:25 pm. The 4x400 meter relay finals close out the meet at 5 pm.
 
You can follow live results of the meet here, or watch live coverage for all three days at NCAA.com.