Carl, Dumas Earn All-America Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- Junior Molly Carl (York, Maine) and senior Bethany Dumas (Augusta, Maine/Cony) of the University of Southern Maine women's outdoor track and field team earned All-American honors Saturday by finishing among the top eight in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and javelin throw, respectively, at the NCAA Division III National Championships being held at Claremont Harvey-McKenna Mudd-Scripps Colleges.

Carl placed sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase while Dumas finished fifth in the javelin. The pair scored seven points for the Huskies.

Carl, who becomes the fifth different USM female competitor to earned All-American honors in outdoor track and field, covered the grueling steeplechase in 10 minutes, 40.67 seconds to break her school record by more than eight seconds. Carl ran her previous record time of 10:48.80 at the New England Division III Championships three weeks ago. Carl also earned All-American honors in cross country in the fall, and participated in the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
Junior Keri Lambert of Amherst College won the steeplechase with her stadium-record time of 10:27.32.

Dumas, who earned outdoor All-American honors a year ago in the pole vault, became the first USM competitor to be an All-American in two events. She earned a spot in the final round of the javelin with her last preliminary round throw of 42.13 meters (138-2), a career best.

With her second of three additional throws in the final round, Dumas posted a school record mark of 43.01 meters (141-1), eclipsing the previous record of 42.87 meters (140-8) set by former All-American Kristen Sinclair in March 2004, to move into fifth place. This was the third straight year that Dumas has competed in the javelin at the NCAA outdoor championships.

Senior Britlyn Garrett of Cal Lutheran won the javelin with a throw of 47.14 meters (154-8).

In the 400-meter hurdles final, freshman Hannah Wiley (Arundel, Maine/Thornton Academy) finished ninth with her time of 1:02.05, missing All-American honors by less than three-tenths of second. Wiley had advanced to the finals by winning her heat race on Thursday with a time of 1:01.58.

Sophomore Heather Gearity of Montclair State University won the title edging senior Jamie Simmons of M.I.T. Gearity posted a winning time of 1:00.27 to edge Simmons who finished in 1:00.36.