RHIT's Coleman and Franklin's Waterman Earn All-American Track Honors

Release courtesy of Franklin and Rose-Hulman

DELAWARE, OH -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology junior Sutton Coleman (Lebanon, Va./H.S.) became the first Fightin' Engineer in school history to earn two track and field All-American honors in the same NCAA Division III National Championship meet on Saturday.

Coleman finished fourth nationally in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 52.93 seconds, after placing eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.79 seconds at Ohio Wesleyan.

Coleman has recorded four All-American honors in his Rose-Hulman track and field career.  His finishes include fourth in the outdoor 400-intermediate hurdles (2011), sixth in the indoor 55-meter hurdles in 2011, eighth in the 110-hurdles (2011) and eighth in the outdoor 400-hurdles (2009).

Andrew Schipper holds Rose-Hulman's career record for All-American honors with six, and Coleman joins a group of five Engineers with four All-American awards.  Honorees include Tony Allen ('78), Ryan Loftus ('98), Phil Reksel ('00), sophomore high jumper Liz Evans and Coleman.

The mechanical engineering major qualified for the 110-meter high hurdles with a school record time of 14.55 seconds on Friday, after placing second in the 400-intermediate hurdles trials on Thursday (52.08 seconds).

Other Rose-Hulman competitors included sophomore Liz Evans (Bicknell, Ind./North Knox), who captured her second NCAA Division III high jump national title earlier on Saturday.

Senior Derek Bischak (Angola, Ind./H.S.) finished 15th in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:58.40 in his second national championship appearance on Thursday.  Bischak placed 11th nationally in the indoor mile run this season and was the HCAC Co-Most Valuable Track Athlete for the league title indoor team in February.

The 4-x-400 meter relay team of senior Paul Bouagnon (St. Charles, Ill./Burlington Central), sophomore Tyler Hannan (Winchester, Ky./George Rogers Clark), sophomore Brent Austgen (Cedar Lake, Ind./Hanover Central) and Coleman finished 15th in the preliminaries with a time of 3:17.32.

The 4-x-400 meter relay marked the first national qualification relay team at Rose-Hulman since the 4-x-100 squad qualified for the NCAA meet in 1986.

The decorated Rose-Hulman track and field history includes 42 All-American awards, seven individual national championships and seven national runner-up efforts after Evans performance on Saturday.

Franklin's Heather Waterman

Franklin College’s Heather Waterman (Shelbyville, Ind./Morristown) earned All-America honors with her fourth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run in the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships late this afternoon.

The senior standout posted a time of 17:18.81, finishing 12.05 seconds behind winner Jennifer Gossels of Williams College in the 5-K event at Ohio Wesleyan University. Twenty-one runners competed in the race. The top eight finishers automatically earned All-America status.

Waterman, who qualified for the NCAA outdoor nationals for the first time in her career with the fifth best 5-K time in the nation this season, is the first Franklin track and field athlete to earn All-America honors since Robyn Burns ‘06, who competed in the 1,500-meter run at Canton, N.Y. in 2003.