Two Landmark Athletes Earn All-America Honors On Day One Of NCAA Championships

GREENCASTLE, Ind. - The Moravian College women's indoor track & field team had two competitors on the first day of the 2010 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships being hosted by DePauw (IN) University. Senior Symonne Scott (Attleboro, MA/Attleboro HS) and freshman Micah Leonard (York , PA/William Penn HS) both competed in the long jump, and both competitors earned All-America honors with top eight finishes.

Scott was second in her preliminary flight with a distance of 5.47 meters (17 feet, 11 1/4 inches) on her second of three jumps. Scott then jumped a career best 5.58 meters (18 feet, 3 3/4 inches) in her first jump of the finals, which eventually placed her fourth. Scott earns All-America honors for the second straight year in the long jump after placing seventh in 2009 as a junior.

Leonard was third in the other preliminary flight with a distance of 5.56 meters (18 feet, three inches) on her first jump in NCAA competition. That jump was here longest of the six attempts and placed her fifth to earn All-America accolades for the first time in her career. Leonard will compete on Saturday, March 13th in the triple jump at 9:45 a.m.

With Scott's fourth place, and Leonard's fifth place, Moravian earned nine team points, which placed the squad second in the team scoring after one event.

Also in action from the Landmark on Friday Susquehanna University senior Paul Thistle placed fourth out of 12 runners in the preliminaries of the one-mile run to secure a spot in Saturday's final.

Thistle entered the NCAA championships seeded 12th in that event but improved his personal-best time by one-hundredth of a second to qualify as one of 10 finalists for the championship heat on Saturday at approximately 2 p.m. Thistle's new personal record in the one-mile run is now 4 minutes, 13.15 seconds, besting the 4:13.16 that he ran at the Susquehanna Open earlier this season on Feb. 19.

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