By: Tony Miller
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Jacob Gerber gave the Goshen College men's track and field team its first All-American of the 2021 outdoor season Wednesday night while the women's team set a school record in the 4x800-meter relay at the NAIA outdoor national championship held at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.
Gerber, who was a national finalist this spring in the indoor weight throw, took third place in the men's hammer throw with an effort of 198 feet, 11 inches. The mark was the third time in his career that Gerber has cleared the 60-meter mark, recording a metric reading of 60.64 meters, and is the second-best performance in school history behind his throw of 203-8 (62.07 meters) at the conference meet earlier this month.
Jacob Cornelio of Concordia University in Nebraska, who has led the NAIA in the hammer throw for much of the season, won the national title at 219-0, followed by Zachary Nichols of Southeastern University in Florida at 202-0. Cornelio and Gerber were the top two seeds while Nichols entered as the 11th seed but set a new personal record by more than 15 feet.
By finishing in the top eight, Gerber became an All-American; he missed that honor by one spot at indoor nationals. His is the 32nd known All-American honor for the GC men and the first in an outdoor field event since Kyle Mishler finished 7th in the high jump in 2014. It is the first time on record that a Goshen male thrower has been an All-American; Deanna Kronk holds the only such honor on the women's side, from the weight throw in 2008.
Wednesday's hammer throw began at 6 p.m. and took almost three hours to complete; 150 attempts and five flight-specific warm-up periods comprised the competition, which was also delayed at least once to repair the throwing cage. As such, when the women's 4x800-meter relay heat began at about 8:10, the Maple Leafs had athletes participating in two national events at the same time.
Goshen led the field through the first quarter of the two-mile race, getting to 800 meters in 2:19.87. The field caught up to the Maple Leafs in the second leg, as GC dropped to fifth among finishing teams at the 1,600-meter point, before Summer Cooper got a spot back in the final quarter to finish in 9:22.40.
The Maple Leafs (Annika Fisher, Makayla Collier, Naomi Richer and Cooper) benefitted from a disqualification above them in the standings, finishing fifth in their heat and 12th in the nation. The time was 0.75 seconds better than the school record set two weeks ago.
With Gerber's third-place finish scoring points for the team, GC's men rank eighth in the nation after three completed events. The women are tied for 28th in a logjam that sweeps up more than three-quarters of the field.
Goshen's quest to shine on the national stage continues Thursday with three more events. Simon Graber Miller competes in the men's high jump at 5:30 p.m. EDT, followed by Summer Cooper in the women's 5,000-meter run at 8:45 and Nelson Kemboi in the men's 5,000-meter run at 9:35. The high jump champion will be crowned Thursday night while the 5,000s are preliminaries that set the field for finals on Friday.