Brockport, NY – The 2026 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships qualifiers were announced over the weekend, with qualifying athletes set to compete for national titles. Brockport's Tim Smith and Gabriel Giannini both are headed out to La Crosse, WI to compete at the Veteran's Memorial Field Sports Complex.
 
Timothy Smith – Men's 400-meter hurdles
 
Smith is heading to Wisconsin to compete for a national title in the men's 400-meter hurdles after a great campaign this outdoor season. He comes in at 22^nd out of the 22 national qualifiers for his event, with his qualifying time of 52.85. Last week at the AARTFC Regional Championships he took seventh place in the 400-meter hurdle finals with a time of 53.84.
 
Tim is making his first career trip to outdoor nationals as a Golden Eagle at Brockport. He competed at the most recent NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships, earning All-American status in the 800-meter with a school record time of 1:51.61 for seventh place. Tune in to the meet on Thursday, May 21^st at 6:25pm to catch Tim in the prelims. Finals for the 400-meter hurdles are set for Saturday at 4:25pm.
 
Gabriel Giannini – Men's Decathlon
 
Giannini earns a spot to compete in the decathlon on the national stage after another strong season scoring with the Golden Eagles. The multi standout enters nationals ranked 11^th in the event, with his qualifying score of 6,687 points he posted back on April 12-13^th at the Brockport Multi & Invitational. At regionals last week he made some noise as a runner in a pair of relays for Brockport that both earned medals, as well competing solo in the long jump.
 
Gabe is heading to outdoor nationals for the first time in his career at Brockport. However, he has been to the NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships in each of the last two years. This past indoor season he earned All-American status with an 11^th place finish in the heptathlon with 4,979 points. He now looks to compete for a national title in the decathlon out in Wisconsin. The first of his 10 events will begin on Thursday, May 21^st at 11am. Gabe's final session is scheduled to begin Friday, May 22^nd at 11am.
 
The three-day championship meet will run from Thursday, May 21^st to Saturday, May 23^rd. Live video of the meet will be available at NCAA.com and live results will be provided by https://www.leonetiming.com/.
 
For each men's individual event contested, including the decathlon, the top 22 declared student-athletes were accepted into the championships. For each women's individual event contested, including the heptathlon, the top 22 declared student-athletes were accepted into the championships. For each relay event contested, the top 16 declared relay teams, one per institution, were accepted into the championships.
 
A total of five Empire 8 institutions have at least one student-athlete who qualified and are entered in the 2026 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Empire 8 Champion SUNY Geneseo has a total of 13 student-athletes competing. Nazareth University and Utica University each have three student-athletes competing, while SUNY Brockport and St. John Fisher University both have a pair of student-athletes in competition. Smith and Giannini make up two of the 23 total student-athletes from the conference heading to nationals.
 
Tune in later this week to watch our Golden Eagles pursue National Titles and further All-American honors to conclude their 2026 seasons.