WSC track and field lights it up

Best finish in 10 years

Western State College high jumper Susan Jackson won her first national championship in the high jump and both Mountaineer teams finished with their best team finishes in nearly a decade in the 2012 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl on the campus of Colorado State–Pueblo.
The men tied for third with 54 points to match the best team finishes in program history from the 2002 and 2003 championships. The women finished in sixth with 33 points for the best finish since 2002. Both teams combined for three individual national champions and 13 All-Americans.
Two-time indoor national champion Barbara Szabo finished as the national runner-up for her first outdoor All-America honor with 5 feet, 11.5 inches. The two Mountaineer jumpers finished with the same height and the tiebreaker was decided by the number of attempts at 5-8 earlier in the meet.
The Mountaineer men added three All-Americans and 16 points in the 5,000-meter run with Tyler Pennel finishing as the national runner-up in the event for the fourth time in his career. He finished in 15:16.65, ahead of fourth-place Gabe Proctor in 15:20.08 and sixth-place Ryan Haebe in 15:24.07. It’s the second All-America honor for each Mountaineer during this championship.
Lauren Kleppin earned her ninth career All-America honor with a fifth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run at 17:56.97. She made a move late in the race to take the lead for her second All-America performance of the weekend. Sarah Lyle finished No. 11 overall in 18:12.79.
The finishes this weekend improved the Western State all-time totals for all sports in individual national champions to 100 and All-Americans to 898.

Mountaineer National Champions
Ryan Haebe—Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase
Tyler Pennel—Men’s 10,000-meter run
Susan Jackson—Women’s high jump

Mountaineer National Runners-Up
Oliver Harsanyi—Men’s high jump
Lauren Kleppin—Women’s 10,000-meter run
Tyler Pennel—Men’s 5,000-meter run
Barbara Szabo—Women’s high jump

Mountaineer All-Americans
David Goodman—Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase
Ryan Haebe—Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000-meter run
Oliver Harsanyi—Men’s high jump
Lauren Kleppin—Women’s 10,000-meter run and 5,000-meter run
Sarah Lyle—Women’s 5,000-meter run
Tyler Pennel—Men’s 10,000-meter run, men’s 5,000-meter run
Gabe Proctor—Men’s 10,000-meter run, men’s 5,000-meter run
Susan Jackson—Women’s high jump
Barbara Szabo—Women’s high jump