Prather Set for Division II National Championships

Live Results - Live Video

ATHENS, W.Va. – Graduate student Issac Prather of the Concord University men's track & field team begins competition at the NCAA Division II National Championships Thursday evening at the CSU-Pueblo ThunderBowl in Pueblo, Colorado.

RACE SCHEDULE
9:10 p.m. eastern Thursday – 3,000-meter steeplechase prelims

9:30 p.m. eastern Friday – 3,000-meter steeplechase final

10:30 p.m. eastern Saturday – 5,000-meter run

LIVE COVERAGE
Leone Timing will provide live results throughout the championships. NCAA.com handles all the live streaming video duties for championship events.

Live Results
Live Video

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
This is the third straight year that Prather has qualified for the Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and the second that he has made the field in both the steeplechase and 5,000-meters. Ahead of the championships, Prather is ranked fourth in Division II in the steeplechase (8:47.98) and 14^th in the 5,000-meters (13:57.87).

The steeplechase field will consist of 19 runners with 12 making the finals Friday evening. The Summersville, West Virginia native is in heat one. The top four from each of the two heats automatically advance with the next four fastest moving on, on time. The 5,000-meters will be a final with the field consisting of 20. Only four athletes are doubling up in the steeplechase and 5,000-meters: Prather, Adams State's Clement Duigou, Grand Valley State's Caleb Futter and Northwest Missouri State's Reece Smith.

The top eight in each event are recognized as First Team All-Americans while those placing 9-12 are Second Team All-Americans. Prather is a two-time Second Team All-American in the steeplechase, having finished ninth and 10^th each of the last two years. He finished 21^st in the 5,000-meters last season. Last spring, Prather ran 8:57.85 in the steeplechase as he was the 10^th and final athlete to go under nine minutes in the event.

Among the notables in the steeplechase field are Smith who is the defending championship, last year's runner-up Duigou and First Team All-Americans from last season Futter and Azusa Pacific's Nixon Korir. Smith is the only athlete in the field to have broken 8:40. The only other Atlantic Region representative in the steeplechase field is Edinboro's Ward Ries, who is a West Virginia native like Prather. In the 5,000-meters, the defending champion is also back this spring, UC-Colorado Springs' Afewerki Zeru.