Senior Jacob Gerkin earned all American honors at the NCAA championships on March 10. The deciding match was a repeat of the final round of the RMAC where he faced Cal Baptist’s Daxton Gordon. In the RMAC championship, Gerkin lost 10-4, but at the NCAA tournament Gerkin pulled ahead in the end of the neck and neck match to win 6-5. He finished eighth overall in the tournament.
Although Gerkin was the only Mines wrestler to compete at Nationals, Keenan Willits and Justin Ray both placed in the NCAA super regionals at Steinhauer Fieldhouse.
At the NCAA Indoor Track and Field championship, several Orediggers received All American Honors. The men’s distance relay team, consisting of Miller Kettle, Hunter Arnell, Ryan Morningstar, and Josh Evans placed seventh and broke a school record. They were awarded first team All American.
Logan Winfield took ninth in the mile resulting in a second team All American finish. Dan Mahoney and Grant Colligan represented in the 5000m (Mahoney took eighth) and also earned honors. All three runners were part of the Mines Cross Country team that placed first in Nationals in 2015.
Austin Smith and Triston Sisneros earned first and second team All American, respectively, in the heptathlon. This event includes a 60m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault, and a 1000m run. Smith finished eighth overall and Sisneros finished tenth.
Earlier in the season, at the RMAC championships, several Mines athletes medaled. Amanda Giles took bronze in the pentathlon. Jake Pinkston (pole vault), Hunter Arnell (400 m), and the Mines’ men’s distance relay team took silver, and Sisneros won gold in the heptathlon.
