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SAN ANGELO, Texas - Junior Paul Wagner earned his first career All-America honor by placing sixth in the hammer with a throw of 196-9, extending his own school and PSAC record, to lead East Stroudsburg University on the first day of the 2009 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Angelo State's LeGrand Sports Complex.
Wagner's record throw came on his first attempt of the day and sent him to the finals after three throws for each of the 16 competitors. The mark stood up for sixth place after the finals to give him All-America status, the first-ever for an ESU athlete in the hammer and the first for an ESU thrower since Paul Ferency was third in the shot put in 1979.
His qualifying mark of 190-7 was 12th going into the NCAA Championships and was already a PSAC record. Wagner was ninth in the weight throw, one spot out of All-America contention, at the NCAA indoor championships in March.
ESU's three other athletes competing on Thursday, sophomore Jasmine Johnson in the 400m, junior Andrew McCloskey in the 100m dash and the men's 4x100m relay team, did not advance to Saturday's finals in their events.
The 4x100 relay squad of sophomore Asher Ashfield, juniors Chris Reddick and Jeff McClenton and McCloskey, finished ninth in a field of 12 schools. Their time of 40.92 seconds was fifth in their heat and 21-hundredths away from the last spot in the finals. They had qualified in a school-record time of 40.83 seconds while winning ESU's first PSAC championship in the 4x100 relay since 1978.
McCloskey was less than one-hundredth of a second away from moving into the finals of the 100m dash. He was fourth in the first of two heats in 10.475 seconds, but was edged out by two sprinters in the second heat, Gavin Terrelong (Lincoln, 10.47) and Carlin Isles (Ashland, 10.473) to finish 10th with the top eight advancing to Saturday. He was an automatic qualifier for the meet with a time of 10.41 seconds on his way to the PSAC championship two weeks ago.
Johnson was the first ESU women's runner to compete at the NCAA outdoor championships at a distance under 1500 meters and ran a time of 56.50 seconds to rank 18th in a field of 22 athletes. Her qualifying time of 56.06 seconds is a school record.
Junior Rusty Smith, a two-time indoor All-American in the 60m hurdles, is the only ESU athlete competing on Friday as he makes his first appearance at the outdoor championships in the 110m hurdles. The rest of the Warriors' school record contingent of nine athletes - men's javelin throwers Bill Buis and Kenny Cardullo, pole vaulter Matt Gallup and high jumpers Lynn Mayer and Janelle Smith - will compete on Saturday.
