Men's Track and Field | 5/28/2016 3:39:00 PM

Results
WAVERLY, Iowa -- Nazareth seniors Luis Rivera and Tom Sippie each earned All-Amercan honors Saturday during the final day of the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships at Wartburg College.

Rivera set a school record by placing third in the hammer throw with a distance of 59.29 meters (194 feet, 6 1/4 inches) and Sippie posted an identical time in Saturday's 400-meter final as he did in Friday's prelims and finished in fifth place. The fifth-place finish makes Sippie Nazareth's second-ever outdoor track All-American. Nick Stenuf earned All-American honors in the 800-meter run for Nazareth in 2006 and again in 2008.

"Both guys performed well," said Nazareth Coach James Goss. "It started to rain during Luis' performance but he still managaed a personal best in the hammer. As for Sippie, he ran really well and was right there at the end. Both guys represented Nazareth well."

Sippie's time of :47.61 seconds equaled his school-record time that he posted in Friday's preliminaries. He was in seventh place after the prelims, but moved up two places in the final. The All-American performance caps a strong two-year career for Sippie, who transferred to Nazareth in 2014 after two seasons at Lynchburg College. The spring season has been especially impressive as he was named Track Athlete of the Meet at the NYSCTC Championships three weeks ago and then earned Atlantic Region all-star honors in the 200- and 400-meter dashes.

In a closely contested race Saturday, Sippie's time was less than a second behind the winner, sophomore Daniel Pietsch of Emory (:46.92), who outkicked James Wilson (:46.97) of Monmouth (Ill.) to the finish line. Kalmon Stokes of Aurora (:47.22) and Gabriel Barrett-Jackson of Occidental (:47.49) were third and fourth respectively and finished a fraction of a second ahead of Sippie.

Rivera also closed out an honor-laden career that included a national title in the 35-pound weight throw during the indoor season. He also earned All-American honors outdoors in 2015 to become Nazareth's first field All-American.

In Saturday's competition only Edward Cummins of Rhode Island College (62.19 meters) and Tyler Burdoff of Baldwin Wallace had longer hammer throws than Rivera, who placed eighth last year.