IWU Lands Five Outdoor Track All-Americans

The Illinois Wesleyan University men's track team finished in 15th place at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, held May 20-22 at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

The Titans, who collected 16.5 points, also had the most All-Americans in one meet in school history, with five athletes earning that honor.

"It was a very successful three days for IWU track," said coach Chris Schumacher. "We talked about going in to make some noise and we did that. Everybody that was All-American is a junior and that gives us a lot of confidence going into next season."

Lincoln (Pa.) University won both the men's and women's championships with 62 and 54 points, respectively.

The IWU Division III All-Americans, with events, are:

S Steve Zimmerman (Naperville, North HS) tied for fourth in the pole vault. Zimmerman, who finished eight places better than he was seeded, cleared 15 feet, 3 inches, getting within three inches of his career best. Brad Parris of McMurry University won the event at 15 feet, 9 inches.

"I told Steve the hardest thing about being an All-American is getting to the national meet," said Schumacher. "It doesn't necessarily take a record performance to be an All-American. There was a really strong head wind, which messed up a lot of the vaulters."

S Jason Dennis (Prophetstown HS) finished third in the shot put Dennis recorded a toss of 55 feet, 2 inches to finish third in the shot put. The vistorious toss was from Darwin Dumonceaux of St. John's at 57 feet, 10 1/4 inches.

Dennis, who was eighth in the shot put in last year's outdoor championships, did not qualify for the finals of the discus throw.

S Harold Gauthier (Lynwood, Thornton Fractional South HS) finished sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 47 feet, 1/4 inch. Thomas Thompson of Lincoln (Pa.) University cleared 49 feet, 10 inches to win the event. Gauthier was fourth nationally in the 1998 outdoor triple jump.

S Martez Clark (Frankfort, Lincoln-Way HS) finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 11 inches. The winner was Shawn Watson of Mount Union with a jump of 25 feet, 7 inches.

S Muneerah Maalik (Chicago, Hyde Park Academy) took fifth in the women's 100 with a school-record time of 12.14 seconds. The winning time was 11.79 seconds, a meet record, by Rhondale Jones of Lincoln (Pa.) University.

Also at the national meet, junior Denise Short (Clinton HS) placed ninth in the long jump, leaping 18 feet, 1-1/4 inches. "Denise did an excellent job," Schumacher added. "She had the second best series of jumps of her career. Her best was last week. She definitely competed well."

Senior Karle Koritz (Clinton HS) qualified for the finals in the 110 hurdles as a fifth seed with a time of 14.74 seconds, but did not place in the top seven in the finals.