AVON, Ohio — The Goshen College track and field programs brought home a pair of All-American honors, encompassing five athletes, and three more spots in the national finals at the NAIA indoor national championships held March 3-6 in the Ruth Donohoe First Dakota Fieldhouse on the campus of Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota.

The top eight finishers in each event receive All-American honors. The size of the national final in each event varied from eight to 16 competitors depending on how many could reasonably compete at one time.

All-Americans

Junior Simon Graber Miller led Goshen with a third-place finish in the men's high jump on Saturday, March 6. After tying his own school record and getting into the top six finishers with a 6-8¼ jump, he broke the record twice and finished the day at 6-10¾. Only one competitor beat him outright, but he placed third instead of second because the other person who cleared the same height needed fewer attempts.

He became Goshen's first All-American in an indoor field event since Peni Acayo turned that trick in the women's triple jump in 2010.

Graber Miller is the son of Keith and Ann Graber Miller and a graduate of Bethany Christian High School.

On the women's side of the ledger, GC again broke two school records in the same event, the 4x800-meter relay. The four athletes are listed here alphabetically, not in the order in which they ran.

Makayla Collier helped the Maple Leafs to an eighth-place finish in the 1.99-mile event, running the preliminary heat in 9:36.53 on Wednesday, March 3, to qualify for the final and then running the final in 9:36.48 two days later. Collier was part of Goshen's efforts this season in all three relays — the 4x400, 4x800 and distance medley relay — and also set career bests in the 600 and the mile this season.

She is a senior elementary education and TESOL Education major from Clayton, Indiana and Cascade High School. Her parents are Brent and Tammy Collier.

Summer Cooper was a two-event national competitor for the Maple Leafs, taking ninth in the 1000 meters in 3:03.33 in addition to her relay contributions. She could also have qualified in the 3,000-meter run, where she ranked seventh in the NAIA at the end of the regular season, but elected not to compete in that event. In a "normal" year, when the national field is open to all competitors who meet the qualifying standard instead of just the top 16, she would also have qualified in the 800 meters, mile and 5,000 meters.

Cooper is an Elkhart, Indiana, native and a product of Concord High School. She is the daughter of Annette Cooper and is studying exercise science and sports management.

Annika Fisher, another first-year Maple Leaf runner, is another GC athlete who could have competed in multiple events. She ranked 14th in the NAIA in the women's mile and 24th in the 800, meeting the previously-published qualifying standards in both events. Because this was her first year running in college, all of her collegiate bests came this year, but she also ran the 600 and 5,000 individually along with all three relays.

Fisher hails from Staunton, Virginia, and Broad Gap High School. She is the daughter of Larry and Gayle Alderfer Fisher and is studying Sociology and Pre-Architecture.

Hannah Kurtz was another key cog in the Maple Leaf relay machine, running the 4x800 at nationals but appearing in all three relays over the course of the season. In fact, according to the national track and field results database, all 10 events in which she appeared this season were relays of some form, and she took part in Goshen's fastest time of the season at all three relay distances.

Kurtz is a Goshen native who prepped at Goshen High School and studies elementary education at GC. Her parents are Kim and Eric Kurtz.

The last time GC had top-eight finishes in both men's and women's action at the same indoor national championship was 2014, when Abby Dunn, Mitchell Brickson, Kolton Nay and Brad Sandlin were all all-Americans in the 3,000-meter race walk.

Goshen had not had all-Americans in a field event and a running event at the same national meet since the 2001 outdoor championship, when Heidi Saunders got the honor in the women's 3,000-meter run and Ann Christenson did the same in the shot put.

National Finalists

Jacob Gerber finished ninth in the men's weight throw with an effort of 58 feet, 3¼ inches. After fouls on each of his first two attempts in the first flight, his school-record heave on his third and final preliminary toss put him in ninth place. In the weight throw, while the final competitors receive three additional trials, the best throw counts regardless of which segment it comes in. This was Gerber's second straight appearance at a national final after posting a 10th-place throw last winter and his third national appearance overall following a 14th-place mark in the hammer throw at the 2019 outdoor championship.

Gerber is the son of Randy and Gail Gerber and a product of Goshen High School. His major area of study is exercise science.

Nelson Kemboi took 11th place in the men's 3,000-meter run on Saturday after qualifying with the fifth-fastest time in the preliminaries on Thursday. Because of the way the two heats were combined, he received the ninth seed in the final. His semifinal clocking was 8:48.33 and he ran 9:05.89 in the final. He ran exclusively in the 3,000 during indoor season after winning the conference championship in men's cross country over 8 kilometers (5,000 meters) this fall. His collegiate best time in the 3,000 was 8:42.57, set at the conference championship on the penultimate weekend in February.

Kemboi is a freshman from Eldoret Rift Valley, Kenya, and Simotwo High School. He is a molecular biology and biochemistry major.

Hayley Bickford finished 12th in the women's 3,000-meter race walk, a 1.86-mile event that is the only indoor race walk championship contested by American colleges. She finished in 17:10.83 to continue a Maple Leaf tradition of excellence in the event that has seen 43 All-American honors and 72 national qualifiers over the 28 national meets since Tina Peters first donned the GC purple in the 2007 indoor championship. Bickford entered the final ranked 10th in the nation.

Hayley is the daughter of Carolyn and Todd Bickford of Gorham, Maine, where she prepped at Gorham High School. She is a psychology major.

How They Stacked Up

Goshen's five All-American honors were part of the 86 All-Americans brought in by the Crossroads League, which accumulated more than one-sixth of all the top-eight spots. There are 480 All-American places, accounting for 18 individual events and three four-person relays for each gender.

Huntington led the league with 18 All-American places (eight men and 10 women), followed by Marian with 16 and Indiana Wesleyan with 15.

Goshen's men tied for 44th and the women for 61st in the overall team classification: points are scored by the top eight finishers in each event. Indiana Tech won both team titles.

Full Goshen Results

Men:
Team — 44th, Goshen 6
3000 — 11th, Nelson Kemboi 9:05.89
High jump — 3rd, Simon Graber Miller 6-10¾ (school record, replacing own 6-8¼ from 2020 and 2021)
Weight throw — 9th, Jacob Gerber 58-3¼ (school record, replacing own 57-7½ from Feb. 19)

Women:
Team — 61st, Goshen 1
1000 — 9th, Summer Cooper 3:03.33
4x800 relay — 8th, Goshen (Cooper, Makayla Collier, Hannah Kurtz, Annika Fisher) 9:36.48 (school record, replacing 9:36.53 from prelims, which replaced 9:39.80 from Feb. 19)
Distance medley relay — 12th, Goshen (Fisher, Alexsandra Fernandes, Collier, Cooper) 12:49.67
3000 race walk — 12th, Hayley Bickford 17:10.83