Van Vleet takes 7th in Shot Put at NAIA National Track & Field Championships

The following is from the Montana Tech Sports Information Department:

MARION, IN.- The third and final day of the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships comes to a close with an Oredigger being named All-American.

Montana Tech had a busy day on Friday, with four athletes competing in three different field events.

Nicolo Lancini was the first to compete for the Orediggers on Friday, in the men's triple jump. The indoor All-American qualified for the Outdoor Championships with a B standard jump of 15.54m. Nicolo maxed out at 14.71m, landing him in 13^th place overall.

Women's high jump was next for the Orediggers, with Abby Clark in the mix. Abby, coming off of a 3^rd place finish in the heptathlon, (read about it HERE.) qualified for the high jump with a 1.69m jump at the Trudnowski Open. Abby was able to clear her first jump of 1.60m on her first attempt, but was unable to clear 1.65m, to finish 20^th place.

The final field event of the day, men's shot put, had two of Montana Tech's best in the field, Cade VanVleet, and Jesse Mecham. Both athletes had A Standard throws to qualify them for the Outdoor Championships. Cade entered with the 7th-best throw in the country, and Jesse marked the 24th-best. Jesse got it started for Montana Tech, his third shot marked 14.74m, landing him in 31^st overall. VanVleet threw 16.58m in the prelims to advance him to the finals where he hit a new PR of 17.06m (55'-11.75") on his last throw of the competition. That final throw moved him from 10^th to 7^th place overall, moving him onto the podium and netting him an All-American honor.