LA CROSSE, Wis. – Two-time Northwest Conference hammer champion Anna LaBeaume (Jr., Sequim, Wash.) makes her second career appearance at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships this weekend at Roger Harring Stadium at the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.

LaBeaume is one of 22 student-athletes entered into the women’s hammer competition, scheduled for Friday, May 24 at 5 p.m. Central Daylight time. This is the second national invitation doled out to the junior, who finished 12th in the shot put as a freshman in 2011.

“I am really excited for Anna this year,” said head coach Travis Olson. “ She has made some vast improvements in the hammer and I feel she has a great chance to be an all-American.”

LaBeaume enters the championship meet with the 12th best mark among Division III competitors this season at 171 feet, 10 inches (52.39 meters). That mark is exactly 16 feet behind the national leader – Krista Chauvin of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth – but only about two feet behind the eighth farthest toss. All-America citations are awarded to the top eight finishers in each event.

“She has always been a great competitor and one that thrives when the stakes are higher,” Olson said of LaBeaume. “I have been really proud of what she has done so far in her career and expect some great things this coming weekend.”

LaBeaume broke the program record for the hammer throw at the Lewis & Clark Invitational in late March, and bettered that mark by nearly two feet to win her second Northwest Conference title in late April.

She also ranks third all-time in the shot put and fifth in the discus in the Linfield record books.

Flight assignments, positions and order for the hammer throw are random, and after all 22 student-athletes have completed three throws, those with the top nine marks advance to the final round, where they have three more attempts to top the field for a national championship.

Live results, provided by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will be available here.