Canton, NY - Messiah College sophomore Tim Moses collected another outstanding performance in the NCAA Pole Vault Championships, this time doing so with a third place finish at the Outdoor finale. Moses cleared 16'10.25" on his first attempt, but failed to get over 17' to stay alive.

With his third place finish, Moses caps off an incredible year that included a National Runner-Up finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Through his sophomore season Moses is now a four-time All-American in the pole vault.
 
Eight competitors made it to 16'4.5", though just four were left when the bar reached 16'8.25". Moses cleared that bar on his first attempt, and he did the same when the bar went to his final mark. Both Luke Winder of North Central and Conrad Bollinger of Principia chose to pass on 16'10.25".
 
At that height—16'10.25"—each of the four remaining vaulters missed their first two attempts; if no one was able to clear this bar, Moses would have been the National Champion by way of his clearing the previous height on his first attempt.
 
But both Winder and Andrew Barnett of Johns Hopkins cleared the bar on their third-and-final jump, and after Moses and Bollinger faulted for a third time each, Moses was solidified as the third place finisher.
 
"It was a really exciting finish, really great to see," head coach Dale Fogelsanger said. "Tim's been great all year, and he's continued to get better. He performs on the big stage, and this was another great competition for him. We're really proud of his performance."
 
Moses entered today's pole vault competition as the No. 5 seed with a mark of 16'10.75". He collected that mark at Greyhound Invitational in mid-April. During this year's NCAA Indoor Championships Moses cleared 17'2.75" to finish second.
 

Earlier in the evening senior Jared Schatz ran a 9:17.04 in Heat 2 of the steeplechase prelims on Thursday, and his performance pushed him into the National Final on Saturday 12:50 p.m. Schatz finished seventh overall among both Heat 1 and 2 competitors.

"Jared was wise, and displayed a lot of maturity in the race," head coach Dale Fogelsanger said. "He watched the first heat closely and knew the time he needed to get through. He was patient, ran even splits, and did what he needed to do in order to advance."

Each of the Heats' top four runners advanced to the finals, with the other best six also joining (14 total runners). The fifth-best time in Heat 1 was 9:19.15 by Matt Eidenschink of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, meaning any of Heat 2's runners could advance so long as they beat that time. Knowing that, Schatz was able to pace himself to his finish of 9:17.04 to enter comfortably into the Championship on Saturday.

Schatz entered this week's NCAA Championships with a season's best mark of 9:09.11. He earned that time at the MAC Championships a few weeks ago, and at the time it had No. 3 in all of Division III. Entering today's prelims Schatz's time was still good for No. 12 in the nation. He is competing in his first NCAA Championship weekend.