MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Two tickets to Rochester have been punched!

Allegheny College track and field is sending two student-athletes to compete in the 2023 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, which will be hosted by St. John Fisher University in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Pittsford, beginning on Thursday, May 25. Senior sprinter Mihaela Toader (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) qualified for the 400-meter dash, while junior thrower Jacob Boord (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) will make his second appearance on the national stage in the javelin.

For the women's track and field team, Toader is the first Gator to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships since Allegheny sent two distance runners in the spring of 2019. That year, Emily Forner and Sarah Hevener competed in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races, respectively.

Toader is seeded 11th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.14 seconds, which set a new school record, just one of many she's set in an incredible senior season. After winning both the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) indoor and outdoor championships in the 400 this season and the 2022 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) outdoor crown, Toader will make her first-ever appearance at nationals in hopes of securing more hardware.

Boord enters the national championship meet with the sixth-best javelin in the country. His victory at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Classic was earned with a throw that measured 64.76 meters. Like Toader, Boord has re-written the program record in the javelin multiple times in 2023 after placing 12th at the NCAA Championships last spring. A winner of three consecutive conference titles, an All-American performance would make Boord the fourth Gator to earn the honor in the javelin, joining Vince Werner (2006), Pat Madigan (1997, 1998), and Warren Phillips (1995, 1997).

The NCAA Championships begin on Thursday, May 25, at the Polisenni Track and Field Complex on the campus of St. John Fisher. The men's javelin is scheduled for Thursday at 4:00 p.m., while the women's 400-meter prelims are on Friday, May 26, at 5:45 p.m. Finals for the 400-meter dash will be on Saturday, May 27, at 2:20 p.m.