Official Championships Website (RESULTS)
Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, Mississippi College and Texas Lutheran were all in action on the final day of the 2009 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturdaty at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. The McMurry men took the runner-up trophy, while HSU's Ashley Huston won her second individual crown of the national meet (high jump). Read below for recaps:
Hardin-Simmons
Huston Wins High Jump, Caps Brief But Stellar Career
Hardin-Simmons' Ashley Huston closed her brief but amazing Hardin-Simmons career with her second individual title at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship as she won the high jump with a height of 5-7, which she cleared on her first try.
That first jump clearance gave her the title over Kaelene Lundstrum of Gustavus Adolphus, who also cleared 5-7 but on her third try. Huston also won the heptathlon and finished seventh in the long jump to score 22 points in the meet.
HSU's 22 team points gave the Cowgirls an eighth place team finish.
Huston also won the indoor pentathlon and she placed fourth in the high jump in the indoor season, giving her five All-American medals. This was the first season for HSU to have a Division III track team.
"This was an exciting way to finish up my career," said Huston. "I am so glad I got to come here and compete in my senior season."
McMurry
Men Thrive on Final Day, Finish Second
The McMurry men’s outdoor track and field team had serious ground to make up in order to repeat as national champions as they entered Saturday in sixth place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, and the performances by Hann Ollison and Zach Shew on the final day of competition nearly helped McMurry accomplish that feat as the two track and field standouts helped propel the McMurry men to a second-place finish.
The McMurry men finished with 40 team points, six points behind 2009 Track and Field Outdoor Champions Wisconsin Oshkosh. St. Thomas (Minn.) came in third place with 39 team points.
McMurry entered Saturday with 14 points – 10 points behind the leader Oshkosh – with just three events left on Saturday for McMurry to accrue more team points (200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, high jump). McMurry got a tremendous amount out of those three events, though, as the performances of Ollison and Shew helped McMurry get 26 out of the 30 possible combined points for those events.
Shew set the tone for McMurry’s final-day rally as he finished second in the high jump with a new personal best 6-10¼, which broke the previous Don Drumm Stadium record. Manchester College’s Josh Kimmel won the high jump with an effort of 6-11½. Shew’s second-place finish helped McMurry garner another eight team points, which pushed McMurry up to 22 points.
“Zach Shew jumped out of his wazoo (on Saturday),” McMurry track coach Barbara Crousen said. “He was absolutely awesome today, and he was nearly good enough to be a national champion. His performance was huge for (McMurry) and I’m so proud of him.”
After Shew’s stellar performance in the high jump, McMurry’s entire hopes of accumulating more points rested with the trusted legs of the all-American Ollison (he helped contribute to 34 of McMurry's 35 points when they won the national championship last year) – and as usual he delivered in a big way.
Ollison first defended his national championship in the 400-meter dash as he ran a Don Drumm Stadium-record 46.65 to dominate the field (the next-fastest time was nearly a second behind Ollison at 47.56). Ollison, a senior from Colorado City, ends his NCAA track career as a two-time 400-meter Outdoor Champion as well as a two-time 400-meter Indoor Champion.
Ollison couldn’t rest on the laurels of defending his 400-meter championship, though, as he had to make the quick turnaround and compete in the 200-meter dash final shortly after the 400-meter dash final was complete. In the 200-meter final, Ollison was able to grit out a second-place finish with a time of 21.26 (the winner was Moravian College’s Eric Woodruff, who ran a 21.06).
By virtue of winning the 400-meter dash and finishing second in the 200-meter dash, Ollison helped McMurry add 18 more points to its total to finish with 40. After the 200-meter race McMurry was leading the Championships as Oshkosh had 37 points, but Oshkosh would retake the lead and subsequently clinch the title in the 5,000-meter final.
“(McMurry) had great performances today,” Crousen said. “I can’t say enough about the fierce competitor Hann is for doubling up in the 400 and 200 and performing great in both of them. He ran a great 400 to win the national championship and then he really stepped up for (McMurry) big time to finish second in the 200. He had to fight towards the finish line to get that second-place finish and he did it for us.
“This is an emotional day for Hann and I,” Crousen continued. “He has done so many great things for the University on and off the track and it is sad that he ran his last race for McMurry today.”
McMurry scored its first 14 points of the Championships on Thursday when freshman Gavan Bass earned all-American accolades for finishing second in the long jump (eight points) and junior Thomas Dimitri earned all-American accolades for finishing third in the pole vault (six points).
Both Shew and Ollison have exhausted their outdoor track eligibility, while Shew has one more indoor season he can participate in. Aside from those two, the other eight McMurry men’s track and field athletes that participated in the outdoor championships are slated to return next year.
“These Championships were great for (McMurry) because so many of our athletes that competed return next year,” Crousen said. “Them coming up here and getting this experience was great. They now know how hard they have to work to get back to the Championships and perform better next year.”
The lone McMurry women’s track and field athlete to compete on Saturday was Brena Anderson-Burton in the triple jump. Anderson-Burton was unable to advance to the triple jump finals as she scratched her preliminary-round attempts. She did, however, help McMurry get its only point of the Championships when she finished eighth in the long jump on Thursday.
Four out of the five McMurry women’s track & field athletes that competed in the Outdoor Championships are slated to return next year (senior Quenisha Franklin has exhausted her eligibility and thus cannot compete next year).
Mississippi College
Coming Soon...
Texas Lutheran
Jackson Takes Third in 400-Meter Dash
Texas Lutheran senior sprinter Staci Jackson set a new school record and career best time in finishing third in the 400-meter dash Saturday at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
At Marietta College's Don Drumm Stadium, Jackson (Dallas/Lake Highlands) posted a time of 54.81 seconds and trailed only national champion Liz Kooistra of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Robin Yerkes of Roanoke College to the finish line.
Kooistra won the national crown with a Don Drumm Stadium record time of 54.29 seconds. Yerkes was second, just ahead of Jackson, with a time of 54.78.
Kooistra, Yerkes and Jackson each set NCAA Division III season bests in the final.
"Staci really picked it up in her last 200 to 150 meters and made her move," said Patrick Zarate, TLU's head coach for women's track and field. "She finished very strong and overall ran a great race."
Jackson's third-place showing in the 400 is the highest individual placement at a national championship in TLU's NCAA Division III athletics history. (TLU first competed for national championships in NCAA Division III in the 2002-03 athletics seasons.)
As a Bulldog, Jackson is a two-time relay national champion, with national titles in the 2007 NCAA Division III indoor 4x400 and in the 2008 NCAA Division III outdoor 4x100.
With the third-place finish, Jackson added to her school-record haul of All-America honors. The 400 All-America award is Jackson's 10th at TLU. (Jackson has 11 individual All-America citations overall after claiming one with McMurry in 2006.)
Jackson's All-America award in the 400 is her third consecutive in the event. She was eighth in the 400 in 2007, sixth in 2008, and now third in 2009.
In her three-year track career at TLU, Jackson's nine previous All-America citations were produced in the following events: the 2007 indoor 4x400 relay (1st), the 2007 outdoor 400 (8th), 2007 outdoor 4x100 relay (3rd), 2007 outdoor 4x400 relay (7th); 2008 indoor 400 (6th), 2008 indoor 4x400 relay (3rd); 2008 outdoor 400 (6th), 2008 outdoor 4x100 (1st), and 2008 outdoor 4x400 (2nd).
Jackson has won or been a part of 11 conference titles, and she holds eight TLU school records in indoor and outdoor track and field. She was the 2007 and 2009 ASC Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, the 2007 and 2009 TLU Female Athlete of the Year, and the 2007 NCAA DIII South/Southeast Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year.
~Recaps Courtesy of Each Sports Information Department
DAY 1 RECAP
DAY 2 RECAP