(Portions of this story are taken from Centre, Colorado College, DePauw and Millsaps website)
DELAWARE, Ohio - Centre's Kasey Jackson and Chris Jones along with Millsaps' Erica Cook and Rhodes' Sandy Henin each earned all-American honors on the final day of the Division III NCAA Track and Field Championships. Complete Results
Jackson, a senior, qualified for the finals of the 400 hurdles on Thursday, May 26 by setting a new school record during the preliminaries with a time of 1:01.27. She was able to save her best performance for last, as she broke her previous school record time during the finals by completing the race in 1:00.63 to take third place overall. Jackson was named an All-American for finishing in the top eight.
She came into the event ranked 14th in the nation. Senior Laura Barito from Stevens Institute won the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.49.
Jones entered the triple jump on Saturday, May 28 ranked ninth in the nation with a mark of 48'9.82" and he ended up taking fifth place overall by jumping 49'5.75". He was named an All-American for his performance in the meet.
Sophomore Isaac Vazquez from Wisconsin La Crosse won the event with a mark of 51'2.25".
Two flights with a total of 19 student-athletes competed in the preliminaries. The nine best performances advanced to the finals.
Jones qualified for nationals in the triple jump at the Rhodes Invitational with his mark of 48'9.82".
He ended his four year stint at Centre winning four national championships in the triple jump. Two of which were indoor national championships and two were outdoor. Prior to winning the indoor national championship this year he was named the 2010-11 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) South/Southeast Region Male Indoor Field Athlete of the Year by the South/Southeast Regional Track & Field Coaches. Jones also helped lead the Colonels to their first ever conference championship this season.
Cook placed sixth in the final of the 100
meter dash at the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field
Championships.
Erica finished four-tenths of a second off the winning time with a
12.24. Ashlynn Chavis, a junior from Methodist University, took
first-place honors with her 11.84 run.
Cook ends her career as the most sucessful athlete in Millsaps'
Track & Field history. She owns the team records for both the
100 meter dash and the 200 meter dash. She was named this year's
SCAC Female Track & Field Ahlete of the Year for her dominating
performaces all season long.
Rhodes' Henin placed placed fifth in the 800 meter run to give the
SCAC six female all-America performances for the 2011 championship
meet. The senior crossed the line in 2:12.98.
DePauw's Courtney Lauer just missed a second all-America honor at the 2011 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships after a ninth-place finish.
Lauer posted a best throw of 41.84 meters (137-3) in her second attempt and was just .19 meters or eight inches behind the eighth-place finisher.
Lauer finished her DePauw career with three all-America honors including one in this year's indoor pentathlon and two in the outdoor heptathlon at the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Championships.
Finally Colorado College's Andrew Wagner and Jackson Brainerd
took eighth and ninth place in their heat race, Wagner posting a
time of 3:59.22 and Brainerd battling a virus to clock in at
4:02.54. Only the top five in each of the two semifinal heats, plus
the two next fastest qualifiers, moved on.
Wagner finished 16th and Brainerd 19th nationally. Both fell off
after the third lap of what ended up as a “kickers”
race, one that started slow and picked up at the end
– just the opposite of how the CC senior and junior
would have preferred the heat to go.
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