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Saints have 3 All Americas, finish 8th in NCAA

Posted 5/24/15

St. Lawrence University's women's track and field team added three more All America plaques to the wall on Saturday as senior Divya Biswal earned her ninth consecutive All America in the jumps, and …

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Saints have 3 All Americas, finish 8th in NCAA

Posted

St. Lawrence University's women's track and field team added three more All America plaques to the wall on Saturday as senior Divya Biswal earned her ninth consecutive All America in the jumps, and junior Marisa Turner and first year Megan Kellogg had podium finishes in the high jump and 5000 meters.

The Saints recorded their second straight top-ten finish in the NCAA Outdoor Championship, matching last year's eighth place finish, but this time on home turf. The host 8090Saints finished with 24 points, tied with Baldwin Wallace for eighth. It was the second straight top ten finish for the Saint women in outdoor competition.

A total of 29 facility records and two NCAA Division III Championship records were set in this year's championship with most of the facility records established in 2003, the previous time the Saints hosted the national championship meet.

Biswal, who won the long jump on Thursday for her second national title, finished second in the triple jump on Saturday. She was All America in the triple jump both indoors and outdoors as a sophomore, All America in the triple jump indoors and won the triple jump and was fourth in the long jump as a junior. She was seventh in the long jump and second in the triple jump indoors this past March.

She jumped 12.49 on her second jump of the preliminary round, but couldn't catch Bria Halama of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, who jumped 12.73 on her second jump of the preliminaries and then set the NCAA meet and Merrick-Pinkard record with a 12.87 meter jump on her final jump of the preliminaries.

In the 5000, Kellogg (right) ran with the lead pack from the start of the race, but fell back slightly when eventual winner Melissa Skiba started to push the pace with three laps to go. Skiba went on to win in 17:04.04 while Kellogg finished in 17:18.35 to lock up seventh place and earn All America for the second time in her rookie season. She was All America in cross country in the fall and qualified for the 5000 meters in indoor track, but elected not to run.

Kellogg joins Wendy Pavlus and Alyssa Pirinelli as the only Saint women to earn All America honors in track and field in their first year of collegiate competition. She and Pavlus are the only two outdoor track rookies who have podium finishes, while Pirinelli was All America indoors in her first year at SLU.

Turner, who earned All America honors indoors in the 400 meters and missed the podium in the high jump by just two spots, finished fifth in the high jump on Saturday to earn All America honors for the second time this year and the first time in the high jump. She cleared 1.69 meters to finish fifth, She cleared 1.59, 1.63 and 1.66 meters on her first attempt at each height and cleared 1.69 on her second attempt, but went out at 1.72. Jenna Breaker, a senior from Ripon College won the competition at 1.75 meters, a Merrick-Pinkard Track facility record.