One All-American Finishes And Another Continues
LA CROSSE, Wis. (5/25/13)—One Concordia athlete finished off her career with another All-American award while a second took over the torch as the next Cobber multi-All-American at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Meet over the weekend.
Senior Kaari Jensen finished fifth in the heptathlon to capture her second straight All-American honor in the event while sophomore Cherae Reeves placed third in the shot put to earn her second All-American award in the shot put in 2013.
The two helped Concordia score 10 total team points and place in a tie for 26th place at the national meet.
Jensen jumped all the way up to fifth place in the final day of the multi-event competition. She finished with a two-day total of 4,749 points which was just 11 points shy of her qualifying mark which she recorded at the Drake Relays. Jensen started Saturday by jumping 17-00.00 in the long jump which scored her 609 points. She then earned 591 points in the javelin with a toss of 118-02. Finally, she ran a 2:28.71 in the 800 meters to grab 709 points.
Jensen's top events in the heptathlon came from the track where she scored over 700 points in all three running competitions. She had her best score in the very first event when she raced to a 15.04 in the 100-meter hurdles and scored 836 points. Jensen notched 794 points in the 200-meter dash by running a 26.04.
Reeves saved the best for last at the national outdoor meet. She entered the final round of the shot put having already put up a mark of just over 46 feet but then unleashed a distance of 47-06.50 to wind up in third place. That mark is just shy of her own school record distance of 47-10.00 which she set earlier in the year at the Carleton Relays. Reeves' distance at the national meet is over 1-foot farther than she finished with at the MIAC Outdoor Meet.
Reeves's second season as a Cobber turned into one for the record books as she earned All-American honors in both the indoor and outdoor shot put competitions and also broke both the indoor and outdoor school records in the shot put. Reeves also became the first CC athlete to earn All-American honors in the shot put since 1991.
Concordia had four other athletes compete at the national meet over the weekend. The top finisher out of the four was freshman Olivia Johnson who placed 10th in the shot put. She came away with a distance of 44-09.75 and just missed out on making the finals. Hilary Birchem was 19th in the discus with a mark of 130-01.00 while Chelsea Klemetson placed 20th in the high jump after clearing 5-03.00 and Hilary Thompson was 17th in the triple jump with a mark of 37-04.00.