Schaffer, Leonard Earn All-America Honors at NCAA Division III Championships
CLAREMONT, Calif. --- Senior Abby Schaffer earned All-America honors for a second time this season and fourth time in her two years at Moravian College while junior Micah Leonard earned All-America accolades for the fourth time in her career to lead the Greyhounds’ women’s outdoor track & field team on the final day of the 2012 NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championship hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at Fritz B. Burns Stadium Saturday.
CLAREMONT, Calif. --- Senior Abby Schaffer earned All-America honors for a second time this season and fourth time in her two years at Moravian College while junior Micah Leonard earned All-America accolades for the fourth time in her career to lead the Greyhounds' women's outdoor track & field team on the final day of the 2012 NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championship hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at Fritz B. Burns Stadium Saturday.
The Greyhounds scored ten points to finish in a tie for 20th of 80 teams that earned points in the three-day meet. Wartburg (Iowa) College won the team title with 129 points.
Moravian picked up eight points in the pole vault with Schaffer's runner-up vault of 4.15 meters (13 feet, 7 ¼ inches), which was just two inches shy of senior Catherine Street from Linfield (Ore.) College winning height of 4.20 meters (13 feet, 9 ¼ inches), which broke Schaffer's meet record. Schaffer entered as the defending champion in the event with a meet record last year of 4.14 meters and had the top vault of the year and in NCAA Division III history at 4.22 meters (13 feet, ten inches). Schaffer, who was the runner-up to Street for the second time this season in the pole vault and the third time in her college career, won a pair of national titles in the pole vault in 2011 with meet records in both indoors and outdoors.
Leonard set the school record and placed seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 11.95 meters (39 feet, 2 ½ inches), earning Moravian's other two team points. Leonard's jump came on her sixth and final attempt of the meet. She had made the final nine with a leap of 11.87 meters (38 feet, 11 ½ inches) on the second attempt of her three preliminary jumps. Melissa Norville from Illinois College won the event at 12.58 meters (41 feet, 3 ¼ inches). Leonard, a four-time All-American, earned her first All-America honor at the outdoor championship and her second in the triple jump to go with two in the long jump indoors.
For complete results of the meet, visit http://www.deltatiming.com/results/meet.aspx?yf=2012&mf=2012-ncaa-division-3-outdoor-championships&ts=true.
