GENEVA, Ohio -- The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) closed out the 2019 NCAA Div. III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on a high note with three additional All-America performances to bring its championship total to four on Saturday at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
Trinity senior Molly McCullough turned in the days highest finish as she earned All-America accolades following a fourth-place performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. McCullough ran the steeple in 10:51.06 for the second-best finish in Trinity track & field history. Last year, McCullough just missed All-American honors by finishing ninth at the NCAA meet, and she was also 15th at nationals in 2017. McCullough is the first SCAC athlete to earn AA honors in this event since Trinity’s Emily Loeffler in 2009.
In the women’s 400-meter hurdles, Trinity senior Abigail Bannon-Schneebeck earned All-America honors for the first time in her career. Bannon-Schneebeck broke the Trinity record, crossing the finish line in 1:01.59 to nab eighth place. She entered the event as the 17th-seed but qualified for the finals by finishing sixth in the prelims on Thursday. Kate Dawson's previous record time of 1:02.12 stood for 12 years before being broken today. Bannon-Schneebeck is the fifth different individual to earn All-America honors in the women’s 400-meters in SCAC history and the first since Rhodes’ Sadie Yanckello in 2012.
The final SCAC All-America performance of the meet came courtesy of Texas Lutheran’s Darren Jones in the men’s 200-meter dash. In a race in which the top eight finishers were separated by .59 of a second, Jones cross the line in 21.48 seconds to finish eighth. Jones in the first athlete in SCAC history to earn All-American honors in the men’s 200-meters. For Jones, it was his second Outdoor Track & Field All-America citation as the junior was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2017 4x100 meter relay team that finished second.
In all the SCAC finished the 2019 Outdoor Track & Field Championships with four All-America performances, including Friday’s national runner-up finish in the shot put from TLU’s Garrett Garza, and now has 14 in the last three years (2017-19). Prior to this run, the SCAC had six All-America performances in the previous five years (2012-16).
Other highlights from the final day of competition included Texas Lutheran senior Cortnee Priour. Priour concluded her decorated track & field career with a 22nd-place finish in the triple jump following a mark of 10.96m. The Victoria, Texas native was a 2018 outdoor All-American in the long jump.
As a team, the Texas Lutheran men finished tied for 31st with nine points, while the Trinity women finished in a tied for 40th with six team points.
