Dan Davis Captures NCAA Division III 110-Hurdle National Championship

RESULTS | PHOTO GALLERY | INTERVIEWS

Delaware, Ohio, May 28, 2011 — Junior Dan Davis captured the 110-meter hurdle national championship to highlight the final day of competition for the Washington University in St. Louis men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams at the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships on Saturday, May 28, on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.

The Washington University men’s team wrapped up its most successful NCAA Outdoor Championship meet in school history by tallying 34 points to finish fourth place in the team standings. Prior to this weekend the Bears’ best finish was 11th in 1988 when the team scored 23 points. The top-four finish is the Washington University athletic department’s 50th overall.

The Washington U. women’s team tied for 37th thanks to junior Liz Phillips double All-America performance on Saturday. She finished sixth in the 1,500-meter and 800-meter races over a span of just 90 minutes to deliver six points to the Bears.

With his national championship in the 110-hurdles, Davis becomes just the third men’s student-athlete in program history to win an individual national title and is the first to do so since Marvin Williams won the 200-meter in 1988. He is only the second student-athlete to capture All-America honors in the 110-hurdles with Dave Skiba being the other with a sixth-place finish in 2006.

As a team the Washington University men’s team saw five of its six student-athletes in competition at the NCAA Championships earn All-America honors, which also sets a new school record.

Davis was seeded second heading into the 110-hurdle final on Saturday afternoon and got off to a fast start in the fifth lane. Heading into the final 40 meters he created a little more distance between himself and Ross Blanchard of University of Redlands, the top seed heading into the day and he held him off with a first-place time of 14.40.

Junior Tyler Jackson also delivered an All-America finish in the 110-hurdles. Running in eighth lane he made up several places over the final 30-meters, closing from seventh all the way up to fifth place with a time of 14.57.

Davis and Jackson finished the 2011 season with four All-America accolades, as they finished second and fifth respectively in the 55-hurdles at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Phillips opened her impressive day with the 1,500-meter final, where she posted a time of 4:28.92 to earn individual All-America honors for the first time in her career. Approximately 90 minutes later she took to the track once again, this time to run in the 800-meter final.

Phillips stayed near the back of the pack through the first 400-meters of the 800 final, not wanting to burn too much energy staying up front. As the race entered the final 200-meters she moved into her final gear, surging up to sixth place, where she came in with a time of 2:13.03. Phillips was just a few steps away from moving up to more spots, finishing a mere 0.09 behind fourth-place finisher Kaitlyn Saldanha of Middlebury College.

The Bears also fielded a pair of competitors in the men’s 5,000-meter final in senior Dave Spandorfer and junior Michael Burnstein. Burnstein finished third in the 10,000-meter on Thursday night with Spandorfer running 12th in that race.

Spandorfer led the two with a 15th-place showing in the 5,000 with a time of 15:20.24, while Burnstein finished 19th with a mark of 15:41.51.

The Washington University men’s cross country and track and field teams wrap up their historic 2010-11 seasons by winning all three University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships for the first time in school history while earning a program record eighth-place showing at the NCAA Indoor Championships and a program record fourth-place finish in the NCAA Outdoor Championships