ALLENDALE, Mich. - Moving up two places on her second day, Sioux Falls Track & Field senior Katlyn Sawtelle registered her first and the program's first All-American finish in a combined event by placing seventh in the NCAA Championship heptathlon on Friday. Breaking the USF record she set twice this season, Sawtelle recorded 5,176 points, which was enough to place her in the top eight and earn All-American honors for the first time in her career.
Sawtelle's seventh-place finish is the first combined event All-American honor for Sioux Falls since the Cougars became NCAA Division II postseason eligible in 2012-13. Overall, it was the USF Track & Field's 17th All-American honor in Track & Field and seventh for the outdoor season.
It was a day of steady improvement for Sawtelle, improving her mark on each attempt in both the long jump and javelin throw before finishing the competition with a personal-best and near USF record time in the 800-meter run. . She entered Friday's events in ninth after a reaching a career-best 3,113 points through her marks in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter dash.
Beginning with the long jump, Sawtelle needed a couple jumps to get into her groove when she nearly hit a PR. In her first of three jumps, she registered a 4.78-meter (15 feet-8.75 inches) mark which would have given her 500 points for her total score. In her second attempt, Sawtelle bettered that mark with a 5.14-meter (16-10.50) leap and improve her score to 598 points, but it was her third leap that was critical to her first career All-American finish. Sawtelle leapt 5.46 meters (17-11) in her third attempt, which was worth 688 points, a 90-point improvement from her previous mark and moved her into eighth place with 3,801 points through five events.
The javelin was much of the same story as the long jump, a first throw that would have made it difficult to finish in the top eight before two more throws that kept Sawtelle in the thick of the competition. Her first throw of 26.03 meters (85-4) would have ranked 15th out of 19 competitors and score 401 points. She rebounded with a second throw of 31.43 meters (103-1) then improved upon that mark with a third toss of 32.26 meters (105-10), the 11th-best mark in the field. Her third throw gave her 519 points to move her total to 4320 and keep her in eighth place.
With one of the top 800-meter times entering the final event, Sawtelle was in great position to hold onto her top-eight placement and she was within striking distance of a few competitors who had slower 800-meter times entering the meet. Despite Sawtelle's time in the 800-meter run being a strong finish to the heptathlon, a pair of competitors were near her point total entering the final event, but Sawtelle made sure she would not relinquish her place with yet another personal-best mark this season.
Sticking at the front of the chase pack, Sawtelle was in great position to hold off the competitors behind her in the standings and a strong start from Northwest Missouri State's Chloe Wichmann kept the pace of the race fast. Holding onto her top-five position in the final race, Sawtelle finished with a three-second personal-best time at 2:17.64 worth 856 points. With her PR time, Sawtelle would improve her heptathlon score to 5,176 points, which moved her into seventh and was more than 120 better than her previous school-record total. Sawtelle's prowess in the running events shined throughout the competition, finishing ninth in the 100-meter hurdles, third in the 200-meter dash, and fifth in the 800-meter run.
