YANKTON, S.D. — Goshen College junior Simon Graber Miller was named an All-American in the men's high jump Saturday after taking third in the nation at the NAIA men's indoor track and field national championship at the Ruth Donohoe First Dakota Fieldhouse on the campus of Mount Marty University.

The Goshen native first tied his own school record, then broke it twice on the way to his third-place finish as he cleared 6 feet, 10¾ inches to finish third in the nation. Only one athlete, Shandon Reitzell of Midland University, posted a better mark (6-11¾), but Jacob Heitkamp of Doane won a tiebreaker over Graber Miller to finish second based on having fewer missed attempts.

Graber Miller was the first athlete to clear the opening height of 6 feet, 5 inches, and he locked in a spot in the top 10 that way as six jumpers failed to clear the lowest bar. He got over 6-7 on his second attempt, locking in All-American status as a member of the top seven, and then matched his own GC record on his first try at 6-8¼.

While Reitzell cleared the next height, 6-9½, on his first try, the rest of the field had some tense moments involving a pair of misses before all three remaining athletes made it on their third and final jump.

Graber Miller needed three tries at 6-10¾ to establish a new Maple Leaf record. Among Crossroads League institutions, only Indiana Wesleyan (7-1 by Michael Moffitt in 2016) and Taylor (7-½ by John Miles in 2003) have higher school records; two other programs have identical marks (Bethel, by Richard Warren in 2000, and Huntington, by Jake Nash in 2016).

The third-place finish was the best of Graber Miller's career on a national stage after posting 12th and 14th at indoor and outdoor nationals respectively in 2019. Last season, he was studying abroad during indoor nationals and outdoor nationals were canceled.

Goshen picked up another school record nearly added a second All-American honor later in the day in the men's weight throw, where senior Jacob Gerber broke to finals as the ninth-place thrower but also finished ninth, the final position before that recognition is bestowed.

Gerber fouled on each of his first two attempts in preliminaries, but set a new Maple Leaf mark with a throw of 58 feet, 3¼ inches on what would have been his final attempt. That placed him third in the first flight of competitors and stood up through the second flight to send him to the final.

The top nine competitors earned three more attempts, and Gerber added throws of 54-11½ and  55-7½, but it is only the top throw that matters for scoring purposes, so his 58-3¼ from preliminaries stood.

Matthew Campbell of Doane won with a 66-7 effort while the final all-American place went to Brayden Wells of Friends in 59-6¾.

Nelson Kemboi rounded out Goshen's national trip with an 11th-place effort in the 3,000-meter run. After qualifying for finals with the fifth-fastest time, he spent most of the race in the middle third of the 12-runner field before finishing in 9 minutes, 5.89 seconds over 1.86 miles. Nathan Baker of Milligan won in 8:35.74; the all-American cutoff was 8:49.60.

Goshen finished the meet with 6 team points, tying for 44th in the 84-team field. Indiana Tech wrested the lead away from Dordt on the final event to win, followed by Oklahoma City, Indiana Wesleyan and Marian.

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