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ALLENDALE, Mich. – Slippery Rock University sent four track and field student-athletes to the NCAA Division II National Championships Saturday and came away with three All-Americans from the national meet hosted by Grand Valley State University.
 
Javelin throwers Trinity Clark and Dalton Anderson both earned first team All-America honors with top eight finishes, while shot put thrower John Eakin took home a second team All-America award for placing in positions 9-12. High jumper Cecily Greggs narrowly missed out on her second All-America award with a 15th place showing.
 
Anderson opened competition at 10:30 in the morning and set the tone for the day by picking up a first team All-America honor in the javelin. A Division III All-American at Westminster last year, Anderson earned his first Division II All-America award with an eighth-place finish after a throw of 64.45 meters. That effort came on his second throw of the competition and was good enough to advance him to the finals as the No. 7 seed. He was passed by one thrower in the finals, but held on for eighth place.
 
Clark followed that up with another first team All-America finish when she took third in the javelin to score her second straight All-America honor after being a second team honoree and placing 10th at nationals in 2021. She uncorked a collegiate best of 50.03 meters on her second throw, despite coming from a short approach. That mark would keep her third the rest of the way as the top three distanced themselves from the field. The fourth place throw of 46.74 meters was more than three full meters behind Clark.
 
Greggs was the next to finish when she took 15th in the high jump with a clearance of 1.67 meters, matching the same height as the 13th place finisher. She cleared the opening bar of 1.62 meters on her third and final attempt before clearing 1.67 meters on her first attempt. She missed all three attempts at 1.70 meters, which ended up being the bar needed to move into an All-America spot.
 
Eakin closed out a busy day for SRU with a 12th place finish in the shot put while making his national meet debut. He took third in the first flight with a mark of 17.60 meters and held on for the final All-America spot.
 
Slippery Rock led all schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference with three All-America honorees and led all schools in the PSAC with four total entries at the National Championships.
 
Anderson is the lone SRU athlete at the national meet that will not return for the 2022-23 season, as this year marked the end of his eligibility after transferring in from Westminster as a graduate student. Clark, Greggs and Eakin will all return for their additional year of eligibility and will compete as graduate students at SRU next year.
 
Saturday's national meet marked the final meet in the career of Slippery Rock head coach John Papa, who has served as head coach of the men's and women's track and field and cross country teams at SRU since 1987. Papa closes his illustrious career having coached SRU to a total of 57 team trophies in PSAC competitions with 25 team titles and 32 runner-up honors. He coached 127 All-Americans and 12 individual national champions. Papa will officially retire June 3 and hand the reigns of the program over to longtime assistant coach and 2005 SRU alumnus Bill Jordan, who will officially become the program's next head coach June 4.
 
Saturday also marked the final competition for all Slippery Rock Athletics teams in 2021-22, sending us to a short summer break before the fall teams return to campus in August.
 

 

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