Spicer and Rollins Earn All-American Status
Results (Live Results Link)
LA CROSSE, WI – Five Empire 8 men's track and field athletes competed on day two of the 2018 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. Alfred senior Seth Spicer, St. John Fisher freshman Kyle Rollins, senior Peter Girardi and sophomore Eddie Mahana and Utica sophomore Keanu Heedram competed on the day at La Crosse University in Wisconsin.
Spicer was sitting at ninth place as he entered the final event of his collegiate career, the 1,500-meter run during Day Two of the NCAA Decathlon. After the race, he found his spot on the podium and earned his first Outdoor All-American recognition.
Spicer finished the two-day, 10-event battle with 6,580 points (19 points away from breaking his current school record of 6,598 points). After Day One, he posted a score of 3,445 points with strong showings in all five events, never scoring more than 632 points as a final.
His 1,500-meter run was his second highest-scoring event with 749 points and a time of 4:29.28 while his 110-meter hurdle time of 15.85 earned him his second-highest score of the entire meet of 750 points. He also gathered another 645 points when he hit a height of 4.10m in the pole vault and then tacked on 533 points and 458 points in the discus (33.48m) and the javelin (41.12m), respectively.
Rollins was the first Fisher competitor as the freshman took on the high jump event. Headed into the event Rollins was ranked second in the nation after he jumped a 2.12 meter mark at the Geneseo Early Season Invitational. The Groveland native cleared 2.09 meters as his best mark and landed himself on the All-American podium with a fifth place overall finish.
Rollins rounded out his freshman campaign as an All-American in the high jump at both the Indoor and Outdoor National Championships.
The 110-meter hurdles prelims came next for the Cardinals and featured both senior Girardi and sophomore Mahana. Much like day one of competition, Girardi bolted to a first place finish in his heat after he crossed the finish line in 14.63 seconds. The senior heads into the finals at third overall after the heats completed.
Mahana wrapped up his sophomore campaign as the Cicero native finished 15th overall with a time stamp of 15.15 seconds on the day.
Heedram fouled each time in his three attempts and did not advance to the finals of Friday's shot put event.
Heedram was making his second straight NCAA appearance in the shot put after qualifying for nationals this past indoor season as well. He qualified with a school record distance of 16.06 meters and headed into the competition ranked 19th nationally.