NCAA track championships begin Wednesday with 5 Charlotte athletes. Here’s the schedule

After a 2021 season that saw the men’s team win the triple crown of Conference USA cross country, indoor and outdoor titles, five members of the Charlotte 49ers track and field teams will make the journey to Eugene, Ore., this week to compete in the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Those athletes feature three from the men’s team and two from the women’s team. The five athletes Charlotte is sending ties for the most from the C-USA (alongside UTEP) and sixth-most from any non-Power 5 school.

“Our teams have accomplished great things in a year marked by adversity and from true freshman to fifth-year seniors the student-athletes and staff couldn’t be prouder and more inspired to be here representing Niner Nation,” 49ers coach and 2021 C-USA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year Bob Oleson said in a release.

Fifth-year pole vaulter Elijah Cole will be the first 49er to compete at nationals at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Cole had a standout May, notching a personal best outdoor vault to win silver at the C-USA Championships before qualifying for nationals with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Preliminaries later that month.

Cole will be followed Wednesday by freshman Nick Scudder, who will be competing in the 10,000-meter run. His gold and silver finishes at the C-USA Championships in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, respectively, qualified him for NCAA East Preliminaries, where he finished seventh in the 10k to book a flight to Oregon.

The women’s team takes over Thursday starting with freshman pole vaulter Sarah Brown at 7 p.m. Brown finished fifth at the C-USA Championships, and put in solid performances all year, breaking the 49ers’ program record three separate times, one of which was a 4.17 mark to snag 11th at the NCAA East Preliminaries.

Junior distance runner Chandler Horton will compete in the women’s 10,000 meters Friday. The San Clemente, Calif., native took silver in the same event at the C-USA Championships and qualified for nationals off of a ninth-place finish at the prelims.

The 49ers’ final competitor will be graduate thrower Terrell Adams, who will take part in the men’s discus event at 7:35 p.m. Friday. A gold in discus at the 2021 C-USA Outdoor Championships marked Adams’ third title in as many years, while also holding school records in both outdoor discus and indoor shot put. He set that outdoor discus record of 59.61 meters at the NCAA East Preliminaries in May, finishing fifth and guaranteeing him a spot in Eugene.

Niners fans will be able to watch all the action on the ESPN family of networks, with ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 all carrying different events.

Charlotte 49ers athletes at NCAA Track & Field Championship

▪ Wednesday: 8:30 p.m., Elijah Cole, men’s pole vault (ESPN3); 10:38 p.m., Nick Scudder, men’s 10,000 meters (ESPN2).

▪ Thursday: 7:00 p.m., Sarah Brown, women’s pole vault (ESPN3); 9:08 p.m., Chandler Horton, women’s 10,000 meters (ESPN2).

▪ Friday: 7:35 p.m. Terrell Adams, men’s discus (ESPN3).

NCAA Track & Field Championship Schedule

Wednesday

Track events

Field events

Combined events