WILKES-BARRE, PA (May 26, 2021) -- King's College junior Mitch Forgash will compete for a national title this weekend in the 800 meters at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. The prelims are scheduled for Friday afternoon at 4:15 pm while the final is Saturday at 2:00 pm.

Forgash is seeded 16th in the field of 17 with a program record time of 1:51.56 that he ran at the DeSales Invitational on April 24. Including Forgash, the top four runners from that race in Center Valley qualified for the NCAA Championships with their times on that day. The other Middle Atlantic Conference qualifiers are Stevenson senior Iddriss Iddriss, Messiah senior Brody Beiler, and DeSales senior Matthew Kraus. Iddriss and Beiler will be in the first of two qualifying heats on Friday while Forgash and Kraus will run in the second.

Forgash will be all the way on the inside to start as he drew the first position for the double waterfall start in the prelims. The top two from each heat plus the next four fastest times will advance to Saturday's final. The junior finished third at the MAC Championships with a time of 1:53.98 in the finals after running the fastest prelim time of 1:54.87. Last week at Rowan he ran 1:54.12 to finish fourth in a field that included Iddriss and Kraus. Kraus will start on the waterfall next to top-seeded Mike Jasa from Loras. Kraus finished right behind Forgash at DeSales with a career best time of 1:51.58. He then finished second at the MAC Championships with a time of 1:53.66 and last week at Rowan in 1:52.64. Jasa ran a career best 1:50.00 which is the best time in Division III this year at the Meet of Champions hosted by Augustana on April 16. In his most recent race, he ran 1:50.59 to win the American Rivers Conference Championship.

Fourth-seeded Isaac Alderfer of Eastern Mennonite and fifth-seeded Dalton Martin from Wartburg will also run in the second heat and will be the last two runners at the normal starting line after drawing the fifth and sixth positions. Alderfer qualified with a career best time of 1:50.61 at the Aggie Classic Twilight on May 16 while Dalton ran a career best 1:50.94 to finish second to Jasa at the Meet of Champions race. Prior to Alderfer running his best time last week at a final qualifying meet, he finished second at the ODAC Championships with a time of 1:53.10. His second-best time of the year is 1:52.51 which he ran at the Dennis Craddock Coaches Classic on April 17. Martin also finished second to Jasa at the American Rivers Conference Championships running 1:51.80 in his most recent race.

Iddriss is seeded seventh while Beiler is 14th, and they will run against the second and third seeds in the first heat. Iddriss ran a career best 1:51.18 at DeSales, won the MAC Championships with a time of 1:53.25, and then won again last week at Rowan in 1:52.52. He is making his second appearance at the NCAA Championships in the 800 after finishing 13th in 2018 with a time of 1:51.94. Beiler is running his first 800 meters since finishing second at DeSales with a career best time of 1:51.45. At the MAC Championships he won the 1500 and 5,000 while finishing second in the 10,000 and third in the 3,000 steeplechase.

Millikin sophomore Ben Kuxmann is seeded second with a career best time of 1:50.12 at the Big Blue Twilight meet on April 30. In his most recent race, he ran 1:51.90 to win the CCIW Championship. Wisconsin-Oshkosh junior Steven Potter ran the third fastest time this year last week as he crossed the line in a career best 1:50.39 at North Central's Dr. Keeler Meet. Prior to that he won the WIAC Championship in 1:53.03. Potter is looking to improve on his 13th-place finish at the 2019 Championships where he ran 1:52.58. He is one of only two runners in the field that ran at the last Championship ran held. The other is Piedmont senior Alvin Jacobs who is also in the first heat.