Thomas Earns Second High Jump All-America Finish as Stonehill Wraps Up at NCAA Championships

Freshman Corey Thomas earned his second All-America honor of the year in the high jump with his third-place finish today. (PHOTO BY Gerry Wall)

Thomas third in high jump and 11^th in 110-meter high hurdles, while Fullerton places 12^th in 1500-meter run

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 29, 2010) – Two members of the Stonehill College men’s track and field team wrapped up its stay at the 2010 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Johnson C. Smith University, at Irwin Belk Track Complex today. The majority of events from Friday were pushed to Saturday with severe weather forcing all but four events from Friday’s schedule to be postponed by a day.

Freshman Corey Thomas (Brookline, Mass./BC High), who was supposed to compete in both the high jump finals and preliminary round of the 110-meter hurdles on Friday, saw both his events pushed to Saturday. He took third in the high jump in his second-straight National Championships to earn his second All-America honor of the year, clearing a school-record height of 7’1” on his second attempt. Thomas missed staying alive for a shot at his first National Championship by just missing on three attempts at 7”2.25”. Virginia State University junior Hoova Taylor won the event in a jump-off with Saint Augustine’s College sophomore, and NCAA Indoor High Jump Champion, Christopher Copeland after the two cleared 7-2.25 on their third tries.

Thomas, here clearing 6'10", broke his own school-record later in the event by clearing 7'1". (PHOTO BY Gerry Wall)

Thomas, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II East Region Indoor and Outdoor Male Field Athlete of the Year, also earned All-America honors for the high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., in March with an identical third-place showing. On Saturday, he led a contingent of three Northeast-10 Conference athletes that competed in the event as American International College freshmen Noel James and Dylan Moore finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Thomas broke his own school-record on Saturday, besting his New England Championship performance of 7’0.5” on May 7.

Thomas then placed 11^th overall in the 110-meter hurdles with his time of 14.75-seconds. The event became a timed final over three heats due to Friday’s weather canceling the preliminary rounds. Thomas was second in his heat, but all eight All-Americans came from the other two heats, with St. Augustine’s sophomore Jason Boyd winning the event in 13.99-seconds out of heat three. Only three runners, including Thomas, completed the second heat with three of the six runners in heat two either being disqualified or not finishing the race.

Junior Patrick Fullerton (Bradford, Mass./Haverhill) was already scheduled to compete on Saturday night when he advanced to the 1500-meter final on day one of the Championships on Thursday. He finished 12^th tonight with his time of 3:54.16. University of Colorado Mines sophomore Mack McLain won the event in 3:46.33. Fullerton ran 3:52.92 in Thursday’s preliminary round to qualify for the final 12^th-fastest as well.

“Most people don’t realize how difficult it is to be one of the best athletes in the country,” said Stonehill head coach Karen Boen of her student-athletes accomplishments on Saturday. “To select only 16 of 17 athletes in each event from hundreds that compete is a huge honor. We had two of our own go head-to-head with the best Division II has to offer and I am very proud of how they represented themselves and our program.”

With the six points Thomas earned in the high jump, Stonehill sits in 38^th place in the team competition with over 62 NCAA Division II programs represented at the Championships.