Rivera earns All-American honors
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Nazareth junior
Luis Rivera's record-breaking indoor track and field season culminated with an All-American performance in the 35-pound weight throw Friday at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships at the JDL Fast Track.
Rivera became the Golden Flyers' first male field All-American as he finished in sixth place with a school-record heave of 19.29 meters (63 feet, 3 1/2 inches).,The top eight finishers are named All-Americans. It marked the sixth time this winter that Rivera has broken his own school record.
Rivera had throws of 17.12 and 17.95 meters before nailing his record-breaking throw to enter the finals in fourth place. He dropped to sixth after the finals, but ended up finishing exactly where he was seeded.
St. John Fisher College's
Devin Cornelius and
Mark VanMarter also competed on Friday.
VanMarter, a freshman, placed 10
th overall, with his best of three jumps measuring out at 6.76 meters. He missed eighth place (thus earning a point for the program and All-American status) by just .07 meters.
Cornelius had a great day in his first four events in the heptathlon. The junior set career personal-best marks in three of Friday's four events. He started the day off placing fifth overall in the 60-meter dash with a career-best time of 7.12 seconds. He moved up to fourth place with a new personal-record of 6.62 meters in the long jump, before moving up to third with a throw of 11.52 meters in the shot put.
He closed out the day with with a personal-best jump of 1.88 meters in the high jump, giving him 2,842 points, good for fourth place overall, and just six points out of third.
Cornelius will compete in the final three events, starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday in the 60-meter hurdles.