NORTHEASTERN'S HUNTER EARNS ALL-AMERICA HONORS IN SHOT PUT
Northeastern track & field athlete Nate Hunter threw the shot put 60'5.0 in the NCAA Outdoor Championship
in Fayetteville, Ark., to finish eighth and earn All-America honors. Hunter has
now succeeded in becoming a shot put All-American in both indoor and outdoor
seasons in the same calendar year.
Hunter qualified for the finals after finishing 12th in
the preliminaries by throwing the shot put 59'11.75 on Wednesday. Arizona
State's Ryan Whiting won the NCAA championship with a throw of 65'11.75.
Hunter completes the 2008-09 season with 13 wins in the
shot put. During the indoor season, he won eight times, including the New
England and IC4A titles. He then placed seventh at the NCAA Championship with a
throw of 61'4.75 to become an All-American. He is only the fifth-ever Husky to
throw the shot put 60 feet indoors, a feat he accomplished three times.
In outdoors, Hunter won the CAA and New England titles in
the shot put and became the CAA champion in the discus. His shot put throw of
60'10.50 set a new conference record. He was named the CAA's Most Outstanding
Field Performer. He qualified for the NCAA Championship with a fifth-place
finish at the NCAA East Regional. His best throw of the season came at the New
England Championship, where he threw a 61'8.25.
William & Mary junior Emily
Anderson will run for a national title Friday night after
taking fifth in her heat of the 5,000m in 16:27.13. The top six finishers in
each heat automatically advanced to the finals. Anderson's time, set very early
Thursday morning, is the best ever for W&M at the NCAA Championships,
beating out Marcie Homan who ran 16:29.88 for third place at the
1994 championships.
Georgia State senior Mark Steeds will run in Friday night's 8:40 p.m. (CST) NCAA Championship
race of the 5,000m. Despite thunderstorm delays on Wednesday night, Steeds clocked a 14:01 to
return to the championship race. All 16 runners who advanced were separated by
less than seven seconds.
Steeds, trying to become the first double All-America
performer in Georgia State history, had made the NCAA Championship race last
year and finished 12th in the nation. His goal is to finish in the top eight
this year in order to become All-America in track to go with his All-America
status in the NCAA Cross Country Championship race last November.
Steeds' personal-best and school record time in the
5,000m is a 13:46.85 posted this spring at the Stanford Invitational. That
lowered his previous personal best of 13:52.