Denison freshman Aedin Brennan and junior Tiffany Davis both participated at the 2013 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship on Thursday afternoon in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Brennan was one of only three first-year athletes to qualify for the heptathlon at the outdoor national meet after scoring a North Coast Athletic Conference record 4,629 points at the NCAC Combined Event on April 27-28.  That point total was the eighth-highest in all of Division III at the time the selections were made last Sunday.

The Big Red freshman opened the two-day event with a personal-best performance in the 100-meter hurdles.  Brennan crossed the finish line with a PR time of 15.73 en route to finishing 19th overall.  In the high jump, the DU rookie placed 11th after clearing 5'00.50".  The 666 points she earned moved her into 17th place in the overall standings.  Brennan jumped two more spots in the standings after finishing seventh in the shot put.  The first-year athlete earned 556 points after recording a toss of 34'01.50".  In the final event of the day, Brennan took 17th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.68.

After one day of competition, the Denison freshman ranks 17th in the overall standings with 2,709 points.  Emory senior Theresa Ford, who was seeded fourth in the event, leads the 22-athlete field with 3,040 points, while Taylor Hudson of Cortland State (2,976) and Jocelyn Redlinski of North Central (2,921) rank second and third, respectively.  Wisconsin-Stout's Meagan Ward and Jena Weigel of host Wisconsin-La Crosse round out the top five with 2,911 and 2,895 points, respectively.

Brennan will complete the final three events of the heptathlon on Friday afternoon.  She, along with the other 21 athletes in the field, will open day two at 4 p.m. EDT with the long jump.  After the long jump, they will compete in the javelin and 800-meter.

For the second-straight season, Davis qualified for the 200-meter dash after posting the nation's 21st fastest time at 25.04.  In the second heat of the 200 prelims on Thursday, the junior, who earned her second-consecutive NCAC Sprinter of the Year honor earlier this month, recorded a season-best time of 24.92.  At the end of three heats, Davis' time landed her in 19th place.  Birmingham-Southern's Tiarra Goode won the preliminaries of the 200-meter dash for the second year in a row after completing the race in 24 seconds flat.  Goode finished third in the 200-meter finals in 2012.