Four Ithaca College student-athletes win national titles

A complete of four Ithaca Faculty athletes received countrywide titles over the past 7 days, garnering two particular person NCAA championships each individual for the Bombers’ observe and discipline and swimming and diving plans. 

Two keep track of and subject athletes took the prime place at the NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships March 11 and 12. Senior pole vaulter Meghan Matheny gained her next nationwide title in her celebration for the gals even though sophomore sprinter Jalen Leonard-Osbourne won the 60-meter sprint for the adult males. Two users of the college’s swimming and diving teams also gained countrywide championships. Sophomore swimmer Jack Wadsworth took property the title for the 100-garden backstroke and graduate university student diver Ava Lowell, on the women’s group, finished in very first area for the 3-meter dive. 

Matheny, who received the outside title in 2021, had a dominant period for the Bombers. Likely into the championship satisfy, she had cleared 3.90 meters five occasions, with only a single other athlete in the place managing to total the feat.

Matheny cleared 3.95 meters on her initially endeavor but unsuccessful to distinct 4.00 meters, one thing she experienced accomplished two times this season. On the other hand, Sarah Voit from Oberlin University, her previous remaining competitor, also could not clear the bar, and Matheny received on a tiebreak by obtaining less makes an attempt than Voit.

The title can make Matheny the second athlete from Ithaca Faculty to win various national championships in pole vault, becoming a member of Katherine Pittman ’18.

Leonard-Osbourne won the first national title in his career with a mark of 6.76 seconds in the finals. He also sped to a 6.72 time in the preliminaries, breaking his individual program file for the fifth time and setting the sixth-fastest time in Division III heritage.

In excess of the training course of the season, Leonard-Osbourne compiled a perfect 13–0 record in the party, which includes preliminary heats. With the acquire, he also gained the initially individual countrywide title in application historical past.

Though neither crew won the in general title, both aided their teammates to spectacular finishes. Matheny and the women’s team concluded in third position although Leonard-Osbourne and the men’s group concluded in sixth, the most effective finish in plan history.

Matheny and Leonard-Osbourne were being the only national champions for the school but have been not the only strong performers. Sophomore pole vaulter Sara Altonen acquired third spot driving Matheny and Voit and senior Luke Tobia took 2nd position in the body weight toss with a length of 19.50 meters, a application and convention file. Junior sprinter Tia Jones completed in second spot in the 60- and 200-meter dash, and senior Logan Bruce took 2nd area in the pentathlon.

As for the swimming and diving plans, Lowell posted a score of 486.45 in the finals to acquire the NCAA title for the 3-meter event. With the victory, Lowell turned just the fifth athlete in the background of the women’s swimming team to get an personal countrywide title. The very last member of the program to get a NCAA championship was Nickie Griesemer ’17, who received a pair of titles in the 1- and three-meter dives in 2018 as a graduate student. 

Wadsworth’s victory in the 100-yard backstroke designed him the first national champion for the men’s software given that 1996, when Colin Herlihy ’96 introduced property titles in the 100- and 200-lawn backstrokes. The sophomore’s championship was acquired by putting up a time of 46.45, a mark that broke his have team and Liberty League report as properly as breaking the Division III countrywide document.