NCAA Track & Field Championships: 3 Bulldogs are All-Americans
It has been a while since a Fresno State track and field athlete has earned All-America honors in the javelin.
Vanja Spaic ended a drought that dated to 2007, finishing 11th at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Mallory Webb in 2007 was the last Bulldogs All-American in the event.
Spaic’s top throw was 169 feet, 1 inch, fourth-best in program history. It also meets the qualifying standard for the sophomore from Trebinje, Bosna, to compete in the European Athletics U23 Championships this summer.
Kayla Hopkins (discus, 178-10) and Annemarie Schwanz (1,500 meters, 4:17.10) also earned All-America honors – giving the team three to tie the 1987 program record for a single championship.
Schwanz, a first-team honoree after finishing seventh as a sophomore, is the first distance runner in program history to be a two-time All-American. Hopkins also is a junior.
Among other highlights involving former Fresno-area prep standouts:
▪ Oregon freshman Rhesa Foster (Clovis North) was 20th in the long jump with a top leap of 19-4¾. The Ducks completed the NCAA’s first women’s “Triple Crown,” after winning national indoor and cross country championsips earlier in the 2016-17 school year.
▪ Long Beach State senior Riley Cooks (Yosemite), making her second straight appearance at nationals, was 15th in the heptahlon.
This story was originally published June 11, 2017 at 2:05 AM with the headline "NCAA Track & Field Championships: 3 Bulldogs are All-Americans."