CULLOWHEE, N.C. ? Senior Manteo Mitchell has qualified in the men’s 400-meter dash for next week's NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships to be held at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Ark.

The NCAA National Championships are scheduled for June 1-13 and will be hosted by Arkansas University. Overall event winners will be declared national champions, with the top eight finishers - plus the top eight Americans in the individual events only - garnering All-American status.

This marks the fifth-straight season that a Western Carolina student-athlete has been selected to participate in the prestigious event. Mitchell has qualified for the third-straight season.

This past weekend Mitchell kept his hopes alive of receiving an at-large bid to nationals by finished inside the top 12 in the men’s 400. The selection committee selected Mitchell, placing him 20th out of 26 competitors in the 400 with his top time being 46.00.

Western Carolina is also the only Southern Conference team competing in the NCAA National Championships. The Catamounts missed out on having multiple student-athletes being selected as junior Dominique Young and Felicia Paulding came within seconds of receiving bids themselves.

Young did all he could at the NCAA East Regional posting a career best in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.40 seconds, which is also a new Catamount record, falling into the last man out category. Young was also hoping for a chance in the men’s 200-meter dash as his time of 20.86 seconds was again one of the final times not to be selected.

Paulding had two opportunities to earn an at-large bid to Nationals as her time in the women’s 200-meter dash of 23.83 seconds was just short of the 23.77 final at-large bid time. Paulding also ran a new school-record in the women’s 4x400-meter dash as the Catamounts were the last team not to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA National Championships.

Mitchell begins his final competition as a Catamount on June 10th when he will compete in the first round of the 400.