College track and field: Harper eager for outdoors opportunities

The Harper College men's and women's track and field teams will soon be able to ditch the warmth and banked turns of the indoor season for a chance to compete outdoors.

Theoretically, anyway.

The Hawks already had last week's outdoors season opener canceled by inclement weather, and the immediate forecast still isn't looking very promising for Friday's Chicagoland Open, hosted by College of DuPage.

Yet there are plenty of reasons for coach Renee Zellner's teams to be looking ahead.

Harper has a healthy number of athletes in both genders who have already qualified for postseason action. A total of 15 men and 12 women are early qualifiers to the NJCAA Division III national meet.

Freshman Justin Tolentino has an opportunity to be a point-scorer in multiple events for the mens' team. He's qualified in three events and will compete on relays.

Another key competitor on the men's team is Palatine grad Nick Dorsen, a returning national qualifier in the long and high jumps.

The freshman class on the men's team has a strong Mid-Suburban League feel, with several members from Elk Grove, Rolling Meadows and Palatine.

Gatlin makes all-N4C team:

The North Central Community College Conference has announced the all-conference men's basetball team. Harper's representative is sophomore guard Marcus Gatlin, who earned a spot on the second team.

Gatlin had team's second-highest scoring average (18 points) and converted 73.1 percent of his free throws to go along with 6.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game.

Gatlin averaged 36.9 minutes, putting him fourth nationally in that category, and started each of Harper's 31 games.