Indoor Track: Parker and Farrell named All-Americans at NCAA's
Ryan Parker '06 finished second in the 800-meter run and Jane Farrell '06 finished fifth in the pole vault.
Indoor track stars Ryan Parker '06 and Jane Farrell '06 both earned All-American honors at the NCAA championships at Illinois Wesleyan University this weekend. All-American accolades are given to the top eight competitors in each event.Ryan Parker '06 placed second in the 800-meter run for his second career All-American honors and Jane Farrell '06 placed fifth in the pole vault. Joel Sunshine '07 missed All-American honors in the one-mile run by less than eight-tenths of a second, putting him in ninth place-one place behind All-American status.
"Just to make nationals is a huge step," Coach Mark Reytblat said. "As coaches, we are very, very happy."
Parker placed third in the preliminaries with a time of 1:55.35 to qualify for the eighth and final spot in the championship finals. He went on to place second in the final race with a time of 1:53.52, his second-best time of the season.
"It was a very good weekend for the team in total," Parker said. "We were the only male team from the UAA to score points at nationals."
Farrell broke her own school record in the pole vault for the third time this season with a height of 11 feet and three-quarter inches. This was Farrell's first ever NCAA meet and she is the first All-American in Brandeis pole-vault history.
"I was thrilled and really proud of [Sunshine] and [Parker]," Farrell said. "I had a lot of fun. I was first to compete so I got to sit back and relax and watch everyone else."
Sunshine had the sixth-fastest time in the qualifying round of the one-mile run. He was last in his group with a time of 4:24.24, but finished ahead of all four finals qualifiers from the second group. The entire group of runners stuck together in the final race until the very end. In such a close race, Sunshine's ninth place time of 4:21.47 was less than five seconds behind the winner and 2.58 seconds behind third place.
"It was really good for me to get the chance to run with those people," Sunshine said.
The Judges were fourth among New England schools and top among UAA institutions at the NCAA championships.
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