Charith Kapukotuwa
Two Chadron State College seniors earned All-American honors Saturday at the NCAA Division II National Indoor Track and Field Championships at Winston-Salem, N.C. Karl McFarlane placed 4th in the 60-meter high hurdles and Charith Kapukotuwa was 6th in the shot put.
This is the fifth All-American honor that the native of Montego Bay, Jamaica, has garnered in the high hurdles. Indoors, he was 3rd in 2011 and 7th in 2012. Outdoors, he finished 5th in 2011 and 4th in 2013.
McFarlane’s time was 7.93 seconds, just fractionally slower than his career-best of 7.89 seconds at the recent Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships, which broke own his school record and matched the RMAC record. Saturday’s winner, Ty’reak Murray of St. Augustine’s College in North Carolina, ran in 7.78 seconds.
Karl McFarlane
Kapukotuwa threw the shot a career-best 58 feet, 3 inches Saturday while earning his first All-American laurels. His throw was a 12 and 3-4ths of an inch farther than his previous best. A year ago, he finished 9th in the 35-pound weight throw, one place away from becoming an All-American.
The shot put title went to RMAC champion Wesley Lavong, who fouled on 5 of his 6 throws, but hit 63-11 on the one that was measured.
Three other Eagles also compete Saturday. Ashley Riesen was one place shy of All-American honors in the women’s mile in a time of 5:01.78. That was a little more than 10-seconds behind the winner, Samantha Rivard of Minnesota-Duluth, but even Riesen’s career-best would have failed to make the top 8.
Alyssa Norton, a senior like Riesen, failed to make the finals in the shot put with a best of 44-4, while sophomore Shelby Bozner was 15th in the pentathlon with 3,172 points. Bozner had not been able to work out the past three weeks because of a leg injury.
The shot put winner was Tiffany Okieme of Georgian Court University in New York at 52-2 and the pentathlon champion was Erin Alewine of Central Missouri State with 3,926 points. This year’s RMAC pentathlon champion, Salcia Slack of New Mexico Highlands, was 3rd at the national meet with 3,864 points.