Mountaineers strong at track and field championships

Bringing two national titles home to
Gunnison Valley

Western State College Mountaineers headed to the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at California State-Stanislaus last week, posting several podium finishes and taking two national titles.
The event opened on Thursday, May 26 and Lauren Kleppin led the charge. Kleppin lowered her own school record with 33:47.06 in the 10,000-meter run and ran most of the race on her own to finish as the national runner-up. Western State College also qualified all seven steeplechase athletes for Friday’s final.
Kleppin’s finish was the best by a Mountaineer in the 10,000-meter run at the outdoor championships since Rebekah Mackie won the event in 2002.
All five men automatically qualified based on their placing in their heats and will make up nearly half of the final field Friday night. Tyler Rasmussen, Ryan Haebe and Loren Ahonen took the first three spots, respectively, in their first heat with Rasmussen, leading the pack with 9:02.94. David Goodman and David Flynn finished second and fourth, respectively, to qualify in the second heat.
On the women’s side, Sarah Lyle and Hillory Davis went second and third, respectively, in the first heat to guarantee their spot in Friday’s finals. Lyle paced the heat for most of the race in a comfortable pace for the preliminaries.
Oliver Harsanyi and David Goodman highlighted the Mountaineer effort on day two of the championships. Harsanyi won the high jump national title with a jump of 7-2 ¼, claiming his fourth All-American title and first national championship.
Goodman dominated the field in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to take the title and led a quartet of Mountaineer All-Americans.
Goodman took the lead from the opening gun and expanded upon his lead in the final laps of the race to post his personal record and facility record time of 8:48.63.
Ryan Haebe, the RMAC Freshman of the Year, finished in third with 8:54.71 while David Flynn finished in seventh with 8:58.00. Loren Ahonen finished his collegiate career with his seventh All-America honor and his third in the steeplechase with 9:03.27 in eighth.
Hillory Davis finished as the national runner-up in the women’s steeplechase with a strong kick to edge out teammate Sarah Lyle at the finish line. Davis lowered her personal best by more than a second to 10:24.52, while Lyle cut nearly two seconds of her time with 10:24.56. It was the second All-America honor in the steeplechase for both Mountaineers.
On Saturday, Tyler Pennel finished as the national runner-up in the 5,000-meter run for the second time in his career and picked up his eighth All-America honor in his career.
Roughly 20 minutes earlier, Kleppin earned her second podium finish of the weekend, taking third in the women’s 5,000-meter run.
In the end, the Mountaineer men tied for sixth in the final teams standings with five All-American finishes. The women finished eighth as a team with four All-American honors. It was the best combined finish for the Mountaineers for the men and women since 2004. The eighth-place finish was the best for the women since a seventh-place finish in 2005, and the sixth-place finish was the best for the men since a fifth-place finish in 2004.

2011 Mountaineer Outdoor National Champions
David Goodman (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Oliver Harsanyi (high jump)
2011 Mountaineer Outdoor National Runner-Ups
Lauren Kleppin (10,000-meter run)
Hillory Davis (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Tyler Pennel (5,000-meter run)
2011 Mountaineer Outdoor All-Americans
Loren Ahonen (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Hillory Davis (3,000-meter steeplechase)
David Flynn (3,000-meter steeplechase)
David Goodman (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Ryan Haebe (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Oliver Harsanyi (high jump)
Lauren Kleppin (10,000-meter run, 5,000-meter run)
Sarah Lyle (3,000-meter steeplechase)
Tyler Pennel (5,000-meter run)