Lawrence and Girard named All-Americans on Day One

Geneva, Ohio - On day one of the NCAA DIII Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Pioneers competed in 4 event areas; men's and women's discus, the decathlon, men's and women's 200m preliminaries, and men's javelin. Finishing among the top 8 in their event, Will Lawrence and Alex Girard were named All-Americans. 

Lawrence is in his first season with the Pioneer track and field team. He began throwing javelin this spring and continued to see personal bests each week. At his first outdoor national championship meet, the rookie threw a school record of 66.03m (216-7). That first throw was his best throw of the day as he held on to second place, scoring 8 points for the Pioneer men. 

Senior Alex Girard threw for sixth place in the men's discus, marking 51.48m (168-10) on his third attempt. Girard had qualified with a personal best throw of 52.83m (173-4) at the Augustana Twilight Qualifier. Girard scored 3 points for the Pioneer men. 

Also competing in the discus were seniors Alexander Walechka and in the women's discus, Brianna Leahy. Walechka's best throw on the day of 47.92m (157-2) placed him 14th among the field of men's discus. Leahy threw 40.68m (133-5), placing her 12th among the women's discus throws competitors. 

In the first day of the decathlon, senior Jacob Rice competed in the 100m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m dash. Rice saw personal best times dropped in the 100m and 400m dashes, running 10.93 and 50.59 seconds respectively. In long jump, he marked a jump of 6.33m (20-9.25), and in the high jump Rice cleared 1.73m (5-8). Rice threw 11.34m (37-2.5) in the shot put. On the second day of the decathlon, Rice will compete in the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500m. He currently sits in 14th place with 3,458 points. 

Cade VanHout and Gwen Orr competed in the preliminaries of the 200m dash on day one of the outdoor national championships. Orr ran 24.49 seconds, taking 11th place overall. VanHout ran 21.26 seconds, finishing 12th overall.

Both VanHout and Orr will contest the 100m dash preliminaries on day two of the championships. In addition, Leahy and freshman Brenna Noon will compete in the women's shot put competition and Rice will conclude the decathlon tomorrow. 

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