Four-time national champion sprinter Nancy Cisar Nelson will be saluted as part of Central College’s homecoming celebration Saturday, Sept. 30 following her recent induction into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division III Athlete Hall of Fame.

Nelson was among six former athletes recognized at the Division III Championships banquet at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, New York in May. She is the first Central athlete ever selected. At halftime of Central’s homecoming football game with the University of Dubuque, Nelson will be introduced. Fans, family and friends can then congratulate her at the Post-Game Party in the Red Zone. The reception will be staged until 6:30 p.m. in the main A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex parking lot at the corner of West 5th Street and Independence Street.

Nelson was a key cog in a women’s track and field dynasty at Central in the early 1980s. She was a sophomore when the first NCAA Division III women’s championship meet was conducted in Naperville, Illinois in 1982. The Dutch dominated the field, racking up 151 points and posting a 55-point victory margin.

In 1982 and 1983 she ran the second leg of Division III champion 4×100-meter relay units, then swept the 200- and 400-meter championships in 1984, leading the Dutch to a second-place team finish after helping Central place fourth nationally in 1981 and 1983. Her four individual national crowns are the most ever by a Central athlete. Nelson earned all-America distinction 12 times and was a 16-time national placewinner. She was inducted into the Central Athletics Hall of Honor in 2005.