TOWSON, Md. – Sophomore Ryan Karnopp of the Moravian College men's indoor track & field team has been named the Landmark Conference Field Athlete of the Week for the second time this winter after his performance last weekend.

Karnopp notched his fourth first-place finish in as many tries at the Kutztown University Last Chance Invitational on Saturday. The sophomore cleared the 4.88 meter (16') mark, a new personal record, to occupy the seventh position in all of NCAA Division III, according to the Track & Field Results and Reporting System. This season, the NCAA will invite the top 15 on the TFRRS list for the men in each event to the Indoor National Championships on March 14-15 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

He becomes the second Greyhound in school history to vault 16 feet, joining Timothy Layng '12 with the sixth-best height in the Moravian record books. Layng owns the top five and now nine of the top 10 marks.

"He's been showing this potential for a while in practice," head coach Jesse Baumann said of Karnopp, who barely missed his attempt at 16 feet at Moravian's last meet at the New York City Armory. "Even though we knew he could hit that mark, it's still gratifying to actually see it happen in the meet and know that there is a pretty good chance he just hit an NCAA-qualifying mark."

Baumann added that Karnopp had another near miss on Saturday, this one an attempt at 16' 3". Both the student-athlete and the coach feel the mark can be reached this season, showing the best may be yet to come for the sophomore pole vaulter.

Having already qualified for the 2014 ECAC Indoor Championships with his vault at the Tiger Open at Princeton University in January, Karnopp's leap at Kutztown increased his qualifying standard heading into ECAC's on March 7-8 in Roxbury Crossing, Massachusetts.

Karnopp and the Greyhounds return to action on Saturday, March 1 at the 2014 Landmark Conference Indoor Championships hosted by Susquehanna University.