LINCOLN, Neb. --- Moravian College senior jumper Kristopher Joint and sophomore pole vaulter Ryan Karnopp both earned All-America honors for top eight finishes in their events on the opening day of the 2014 NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships being hosted by Nebraska Wesleyan University at the University of Nebraska's Bob Devaney Sports Center.
"We're proud of how both of them performed and are looking forward to what they still have to accomplish," stated Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "It was reassuring as a coach that even though they both were All-Americans, they weren't fully satisfied with their performances and that they felt they could have done better. That's how you excel, you never settle even if you've meet one of your objectives of becoming an All-American."
Joint earns All-America accolades for the second straight year in the long jump indoors with another sixth place finish at 7.01 meters (23 feet). Joint, who entered the meet 10th in the nation, was one of six jumpers in the first flight of the preliminaries. After fouls on his first two attempts, Joint recorded a distance of 6.97 meters (22 feet, 10 ½ inches) on his final attempt to finish the flight in second place.
He then had to sit through the nine competitors in the other preliminary flight to see if he would be jumping in the finals. Joint made it into the finals in seventh place but fouled on his first jump. He would earn his 7.01-meter mark on the second jump in the finals before a foul on his last attempt that would have been near 23 feet, six inches if his toes had not just hit the red on the jumping board during takeoff.
Joint will have another chance to earn All-America honors on Saturday when he returns to the jumping pit ranked second in the country in the triple jump at 15.09 meters (49 feet, 6 ¼ inches). The event starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday.
"Kris had some great jumps that he just fouled on, but still pulled out a solid mark of 7.01 on his fifth jump to put him into fifth place at the time," Baumann said.
Karnopp was making his first appearance at the NCAA Championships and finished seventh in the pole vault at 4.75 meters (15 feet, seven inches) to earn his All-America award. He passed on the opening height of 4.45 meters (14 feet, 7 ¼ inches) before clearing 4.60 meters (15 feet, one inch) on his first attempt. Karnopp would also clear 4.75 meters on the first attempt which ended up putting him in seventh place as three competitors all cleared the same bar, but Karnopp was the only student-athlete that needed one attempt so he earned the higher position. Karnopp attempted 4.85 meters (15 feet, 11 inches) but knocked the bar off on all three attempts to finish the event.
"Ryan had a nice jump at the final bar on his first attempt at 15' 11" but just couldn't quite put everything together to get over it," Baumann explained.
Complete results from the 2014 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships can be found at http://results.deltatiming.com/tf/2014-ncaa-d3-indoor-championships. Events run through 8:00 p.m. Friday evening and then again on Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.
